enfranchisement  ana 


ADDRESSES  AND  PAPERS 


BY 


EDWARD    L.   PIERCE. 


EDITED  BY 

A.   W.   STEVENS. 


BOSTON: 
ROBERTS    BROTHERS. 

1896. 


Copyright,  1896, 
BY  EDWARD  L.  PIERCE. 


SSttttotrsttg 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


IA- 


PREFACE. 


THAT  quaint  preacher,  Robert  Collyer,  who  mingles 
with  his  native  Yorkshire  characteristics  a  thoroughly 
Americanized  tone,  once  said  in  my  hearing,  "  Whenever 
I  meet  a  new  man,  I  always  want  to  say  to  him,  '  What 's 
the  reason  of  ye?''  Of  course,  Mr.  Collyer  could  get  a 
satisfactory  answer  to  his  question  only  by  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  new  man:  by  finding  out  the  reason 
in  him,  he  found  out  the  reason  of  him. 

To  any  one  who  takes  up  this  volume  of  "  Addresses 
and  Papers,"  and  inquires,  Why  was  this  book  printed? 
I  have  but  to  say,  If  you  will  take  the  pains  to  read  its  three 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  pages,  I  am  confident  that  you 
will  be  satisfied  it  has  a  reason  for  existence.  It  is  true 
that  public  interest  in  Addresses,  and  in  contributions  to 
magazines,  rarely  survives  the  delivery  and  first  reading, 
and  that  there  is  ordinarily  no  impersonal  reason  for 
seeking  to  give  them  permanency  in  book  form.  In  this 
volume,  however,  many  readers  are  sure  to  recognize  the 
treatment  of  topics  connected  with  events  of  American 
history  and  phases  of  American  thought  during  the  last 
thirty-five  years  which  were  not  only  in  their  time  of  the 
first  importance  to  us  as  a  people,  but  which  have  re- 
tained to  this  day  an  undiminished  interest  and  value. 
Is  it  possible  that  any  student  of  our  history  should  ever 
cease  to  be  interested  in  the  earliest  efforts  of  the  American 


2066234 


jv  PREFACE. 

government  and  people  to  protect  and  guide  the  slaves 
who  in  the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War  thronged  within 
the  lines  of  our  armies,  or  in  the  later  measures  adopted 
to  establish  their  freedom  and  admit  them  to  civil  and 
political  equality?  The  first  three  chapters,  or  one  hundred 
and  twenty-eight  pages,  of  this  book  are  devoted  to  these 
subjects,  and  by  their  graphic  and  faithful  treatment  bring 
the  reader  in  living  relations  with  those  momentous 
problems  in  the  solution  of  which  the  nation,  in  1861-65, 
at  first  groped  and  stumbled  and  then  decisively  acted. 
By  the  narrative  of  his  personal  experience  as  "  A  private 
soldier  in  Virginia,"  Mr.  Pierce  makes  us  hear  again  in 
our  streets  the  tramp  of  the  volunteers  in  the  great  Army 
of  Freedom  which  marched  southward  to  put  down  the 
slaveholders'  rebellion,  and  vividly  to  recall  the  heroic  and 
pathetic  experiences  of  that  eventful  period  in  the  life  of 
the  Republic.  In  "  The  Contrabands  at  Fortress  Monroe  " 
and  "  The  Freedmen  at  Port  Royal  "  we  find  a  strong  re- 
vival of  our  interest  in  those  initiatory  processes  by  which 
we  took  up  the  grandest  task  ever  accomplished  by  any 
people,  —  the  leading  of  four  millions  of  slaves  from  bond- 
age to  emancipation  and  citizenship ;  and  by  reading  the 
author's  description  of  the  patience,  docility,  and  devotion 
shown  by  the  Southern  negro  at  that  critical  time,  our  con- 
fidence in  his  capacity  to  make  most  hopeful  progress  in 
the  future  is  greatly  increased.  In  the  "Assault  on  Fort 
Wagner,"  which  constitutes  the  fourth  chapter  in  this  vol- 
ume, the  writer  gives  us  a  vivid  account  of  the  assault  it- 
self, and  also  some  interesting  personal  details  concerning 
the  two  leading  actors  in  it,  —  Colonel  Shaw  and  General 
Strong,  —  of  both  of  whom  Massachusetts  will  never  cease 
to  be  proud,  nor  fail  to  cherish  a  tender  memory.  He  also 
gives  the  enthusiastic  testimony  of  one  near  to  the  scene 


PREFACE.  V 

of  that,  in  some  respects,  greatest  of  all  the  early  trage- 
dies of  the  Civil  War,  to  the  brave  conduct  of  the  col- 
ored troops  engaged  in  it,  whom  he  saw  gathering  for 
and  marching  to  the  conflict,  and,  later,  lying  in  the  hos- 
pital cheerfully  enduring  deadly  suffering. 

Successful,  however,  as  Mr.  Pierce  has  been  in  dealing 
with  the  subjects  and  incidents  involved  in  these  initial 
chapters,  even  greater  success  attends  his  treatment  of 
those  questions  which  arose  directly  after  the  war.  In 
the  fifth  chapter,  on  "  Two  Systems  of  Reconstruction," 
he  presents  a  masterly  review  of  the  policy  of  the  Johnson 
Administration  in  contrast  with  that  which  undoubtedly 
would  have  prevailed  if  President  Lincoln  had  been 
spared  to  finish  his  second  term.  The  portrayal  which  the 
glowing  pages  of  this  chapter  give  of  the  barbarous  legis- 
lation concerning  the  emancipated  negroes  of  some  of  the 
Southern  States,  encouraged  by  the  attitude  toward  them 
of  the  accidental  President,  will,  I  am  sure,  be  a  startling 
revelation  to  those  who  now  for  the  first  time  read  of  it. 
Mr.  Pierce  strikingly  shows  how  the  assassin's  fatal  shot 
made  horrible  history  of  those  first  years  of  reconstruc- 
tion which  but  for  it  might  have  been  so  peaceful  and 
beneficent 

Perhaps  nowhere  in  these  pages  is  Mr.  Pierce's  ability 
as  a  felicitous  and  forcible  writer  shown  more  markedly, 
than  in  those  chapters  which  treat  of  the  privileges  and  du- 
ties of  American  citizenship.  This  is  evidently  his  favor- 
ite theme,  and  directly  or  indirectly  he  recurs  to  it  many 
times  throughout  this  volume.  It  is  a  thread  on  which 
he  has  strung  many  of  his  finest  gems  of  eloquent  and 
earnest  thought.  It  flames  out  in  brilliant  sentences  or 
prolonged  and  impressive  appeals  on  most  occasions  where 
he  has  made  public  addresses,  and  in  the  one  instance 


VJ  PREFACE. 

herein  of  an  article  written  for  a  public  journal.  Especially 
does  he  lay  stress  upon  the  duty  of  all  citizens,  and  pre- 
eminently of  educated  citizens,  to  be  alive  to  every  matter 
of  public  concern,  and  to  promote  every  needed  reform  in 
the  administration  of  municipal,  State,  and  national  affairs. 
Mr.  Pierce  may  be  said  to  have  a  genius  for  politics  and 
political  ethics.  Patriotism  and  philanthropy  burn  in  his 
blood,  and  furnish  his  strongest  heart-beats.  More  than 
any  other  man  in  New  England  now  living,  he  is  the 
orator  of  these  ancient  and  noble  virtues.  No  one  can 
read  his  academic  address  delivered  on  Commencement 
Day  at  Brown  University  in  1880,  without  feeling  one's 
veins  tingle  with  responsiveness  to  the  stirring  appeal 
made  to  college  graduates  to  be  faithful  to  all  their  politi- 
cal and  civic  duties.  Happy  would  it  be  for  the  future  of 
our  Republic,  could  its  educated  young  men  be  addressed 
on  every  academic  occasion  in  such  a  lofty  strain ! 

The  utter  absence  of  cant  from  Mr.  Pierce's  oratory  is 
one  of  its  most  conspicuous  features.  He  drives  straight  on 
to  his  objective  point,  aiming  both  at  the  head  and  heart 
of  his  hearers,  but  without  fulsome  or  hackneyed  phrase. 
Intellectual  vigor,  clearness  of  statement,  directness  of 
appeal,  and  moral  enthusiasm  stamp  his  every  forensic 
effort.  While  his  sentences  throb  with  passion,  without 
which  no  man  can  be  an  effective  orator,  he  is  always  ele- 
vated and  judicial  in  tone,  never  overweening  or  unfair. 
Even  in  the  one  political  address  which  this  volume  con- 
tains, delivered  in  1868,  wherein  Mr.  Pierce  comprehen- 
sively discusses  the  policy  and  principles  involved  in  the 
restoration  of  the  Southern  States  to  their  normal  relations 
with  the  Federal  government,  —  a  work  of  constructive 
wisdom,  by  the  way,  which  foreign  observers  thought  to 
be  even  more  difficult  than  the  suppression  by  force  of  the 


PREFACE.  vii 

rebellion  itself,  —  we  find  these  rare  rhetorical  qualities 
shining  conspicuously,  albeit  the  orator  was  endeavoring 
to  win  votes  for  one  party  and  against  another.  The  secret 
which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  this  too  uncommon  success  in 
political  discussion  is  that  in  this  case  the  speaker  was  a 
party  man  without  being  a  partisan.  What  a  loss  to  the 
State  and  Nation,  that,  with  such  a  qualification  for  public 
service,  Mr.  Pierce  has  not  oftener  been  called  to  it  by 
the  suffrages  of  his  fello w- citizens !  He  ought  to  have 
been  the  successor  in  the  United  States  Senate  of  the 
man  at  whose  feet  he  so  long  sat  as  a  loving  and  learn- 
ing disciple,  and  whose  surpassing  Memoir  he  has  written 
with  laborious  devotion. 

The  pages  of  this  volume  also  bear  convincing  evidence 
that  their  author  might  have  shed  lustre  on  the  literary 
path,  had  he  devoted  his  time  and  attention  solely  to 
the  cultivation  of  letters.  His  style  is  chaste  as  well  as 
vigorous,  graceful  as  well  as  effective  ;  and  every  Address 
is  adorned  more  or  less  by  the  thoughts  and  tastes  of  a 
scholar  and  wide  reader. 

The  unity  of  this  collection  is  not  marred,  but  rather 
enriched,  by  the  tributes  herein  rendered  to  a  few  eminent 
men  personally  well  known  to  Mr.  Pierce,  who  illustrated 
in  their  lives  a  noble  ideal  of  what  a  good  citizen  should 
be.  It  may  also  be  added  that  a  few  contemporaneous 
letters  have  been  appended  to  some  of  the  Addresses  and 
Papers  in  this  volume,  showing  the  impression  they  made 
at  the  time. 

A.  W.  STEVENS. 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASSACHUSETTS, 
December,  1896. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I.  A  PRIVATE  SOLDIER  IN  VIRGINIA      .     .         ...  i 

II.  THE  CONTRABANDS  AT  FORTRESS  MONROE   ...  19 

III.  THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL 54 

IV.  ASSAULT  ON  FORT  WAGNER 132 

V.    Two  SYSTEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 142 

VI.    GEORGE  S.  HILLARD 185 

VII.    THE  TOWN  OF  MILTON 195 

VIII.  THE  COLLEGE  GRADUATE:  HIS  PUBLIC  AND  SOCIAL 

DUTIES 214 

IX.    TRIBUTE  TO  CARL  SCHURZ 246 

X.    THE  TOWN  OF  STOUGHTON 254 

XI.    THE  PURITAN  SPIRIT 279 

XII.    THE  CITIZEN'S  CONSTANT  DUTY 288 

XIII.  A  CITIZEN  OF  BOSTON:  HIS  DUTIES 296 

XIV.  THE  FREE  SOILERS  OF  1848  AND  1852 311 

XV.    THE  ADOPTED  CITIZEN 321 

XVI.    MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA 331 

XVII.    GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS 343 

XVIII.    JOHN  JAY 350 

XIX.    COMPLETION  OF  THE  SUMNER  MEMOIR 362 

XX.  TRIBUTE  TO  EBENEZER  ROCKWOOD  HOAR     .     .     .  373 

XXI.  RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  HISTORY    .    .    .  375 


I. 

A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA. 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  call  for  seventy-five  thousand  State  militia 
being  issued  Monday,  April  15,  1861,*  Mr.  Pierce,  who  had 
been  active  as  a  Free  Soiler  and  Republican  from  the  beginning 
of  his  manhood,  felt  it  to  be  his  particular  duty  to  respond  at  once 
to  the  summons.  Though  without  previous  military  training,  he 
made  immediate  preparations  to  enlist ;  and  on  Thursday  the  i8th 
joined  as  a  private  the  New  Bedford  City  Guards,  being  Company 
L  of  the  Third  Regiment  of  the  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Militia, 
—  a  regiment  composed  chiefly  of  men  from  Plymouth  and 
Bristol  counties.  On  the  forenoon  of  that  day  they  left  Boston  by 
steamer  for  Old  Point  Comfort,  being  at  sea  while  the  Massachu- 
setts Sixth  Regiment  was  passing  through  Baltimore,  and  arriving 
at  Fort  Monroe  on  Saturday  the  2Oth,  —  two  hours  later  than  the 
Massachusetts  Fourth  Regiment,  which  had  left  on  the  evening  of 
the  lyth  for  the  same  destination,  by  steamer  from  Boston  to 
New  York,  and  the  next  day  proceeding  by  steamer  to  Fort 
Monroe. 

The  Third  Regiment  remained  at  Fort  Monroe  and  Hampton 
during  its  three  months  of  service.  Mr.  Pierce's  letters  describing 
scenes  in  camp  will  be  found  in  the  Boston  "  Traveller  "  during 
the  months  of  April,  May,  June,  and  July.  The  one  of  earliest 
date  is  here  given,  with  that  journal's  introduction. 

1  It  in  fact  appeared  on  Sunday,  one  day  earlier  than  its  date. 


2  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER  IN   VIRGINIA. 

EXPERIENCE  OF  A  BOSTON  LAWYER   SERVING  AS   A 
PRIVATE   SOLDIER. 

Attached  to  the  New  Bedford  Company,  as  a  private,  is  a  well- 
known  Boston  lawyer,  who  was  a  delegate  from  Massachusetts  to 
the  Chicago  Convention.1  He  has  consented  to  furnish  hereafter 
for  the  "Traveller"  all  the  information  from  that  quarter  respect- 
ing the  progress  of  the  war.  In  regard  to  matters  at  the  fort,  he 
sends  the  following :  — 

OLD  POINT  COMFORT,  FORT  MONROE, 
April  26,  1861. 

Our  fare  is  simple  and  good.  We  have  a  thick  slice  of 
baker's  bread  and  a  mug  of  coffee  for  breakfast  and  sup- 
per, generally  with  a  slice  of  salt  pork.  For  dinner  we 
have  sometimes  rice,  beans,  beef-soup,  and  bread.  Our 
company  has  been  in  tents  hitherto,  and  the  cooking  has 
been  done  in  the  open  air,  —  two  stakes  being  driven  per- 
pendicularly into  the  ground,  and  one  put  across.  I  have 
relished  my  fare  (our  cook  being  a  good  one),  and  when 
not  on  guard  have  slept  well.  We  are  troubled  with  some 
inveterate  snorers,  who  we  wish  had  stayed  at  home;  it 
must  be  a  comfort  to  their  wives  to  be  rid  of  them.  To- 
day, and  henceforth,  we  are  going  to  be  quartered  in  some 
buildings. 

Our  company  was  detailed  for  guard  duty  yesterday. 
My  post  was  at  a  gate  directly  in  front  of  Colonel  Dimick's 
house,  which  is  near  the  gate.  My  hours  were  from  I  to 

3  P.  M.,  from  7  to  9  p.  M.,  from  I  to  3  A.  M.,  and  from  7  to 
10  A.  M.,  until  to-day,  when  we  were  let  off,  and  I  have 
now  been  excused,  so  as  to  write  this  letter. 

1  The  Republican  National  Convention,  held  in  May,  1860,  which  nomi- 
nated Abraham  Lincoln  for  President.  William  Claflin,  afterwards  governor 
of  Massachusetts,  and  Mr.  Pierce  were  the  delegates  from  the  district  then 
represented  in  Congress  by  Charles  Francis  Adams. 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN  VIRGINIA.  3 

Colonel  Dimick,1  the  commander,  is  a  man  of  some  sixty 
years,  of  fine  bearing,  all  on  the  alert,  with  no  airs,  but 
every  inch  a  gentleman  and  a  faithful  officer.  His  family 
is  with  him,  a  part  of  which  consists  of  two  daughters.  Not 
being  a  married  man,  I  thought  it  not  wrong,  when  they 
were  at  the  window  and  while  I  was  on  guard,  to  put  on 
my  best  look.  I  did  not  apologize  to  them  for  my  dress, 
which  is  the  flannel  shirt  furnished  by  the  State,  worn  over 
the  pantaloons.  This  dress  is  worn  chiefly  by  the  volun- 
teers, and  is  more  convenient  than  classic.  The  overcoats 
furnished  by  the  State  answer  their  purpose  well,  and  the 
blankets  will  do,  as  summer  is  coming  on ;  but  they  are 
too  small  for  winter.  I  understand  that  ours  are  only  half- 
blankets. 

The  Fort  occupies  a  commanding  position.  It  controls 
the  commerce  of  Norfolk,  Richmond,  Washington,  and 
Baltimore.  It  is  the  key  to  Virginia  and  the  border  States. 
While  the  government  retains  it,  secession  is  a  barren 
sceptre:  and  it  will  be  retained.  It  would  require  more 
military  skill  and  resources  to  take  it  than  have  ever  been 
displayed  in  this  country. 

Do  you  or  your  readers  ask  whether  I  am  sorry  or  not 
that  I  came  here?  I  answer,  I  am  not,  and  have  not  been 
for  a  moment ;  and  I  am  a  mere  private,  living  on  a  pri- 
vate's fare  and  doing  a  private's  drudgery.  Indeed,  there 
is  no  drudgery  in  serving  one's  country,  especially  when 
attacked  because  she  is  loyal  to  human  rights.  No  young 
or  middle-aged  man  ought  to  be  wanting  in  such  an  emer- 
gency, especially  those  who  have  professed  most  for  the 
Antislavery  cause.  Let  them  now  show  that  their  devo- 
tion is  not  mere  lip-service. 

1  Justin  Dimick,  1800-1871 ;  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Army,  who 
had  served  in  the  Florida  and  Mexican  wars.  In  1863  he  was  in  command  of 
prisoners  of  war  at  Fort  Warren,  Boston. 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA. 

There  is  a  great  deal  more  to  write,  but  I  have  no  time, 
and  must  close.  Our  dinner  is  ready,  and  I  must  not  lose 
my  share.  Yours,  p 

P.  S.  This  afternoon  the  "  Chesapeake  "  arrived,  and 
brought  us  seven  hundred  barrels  of  pork  and  one  thou- 
sand barrels  of  flour.  The  Quincy,  Braintree,  Taunton, 
and  Foxborough  companies  were  detailed  to  roll  them  into 
the  fort.  So  you  see  we  shall  not  be  starved  out.  The 
Hingham  company  is  on  guard  to-day,  having  relieved  us 
this  forenoon. 


The  following  letter  from  Wendell  Phillips  to  Mr.  Pierce,  oc- 
casioned by  the  latter's  enlistment  as  a  private  soldier,  is  introduced 
here  as  revealing  a  more  genial  side  of  Mr.  Phillips's  nature  than 
was  ordinarily  manifested  to  the  public  :  — 

Tuesday,  May  7,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  We  have  been  reading  this  afternoon  the 
letter  you  were  so  kind  as  to  tell  Anna  Loring  to  let  us  see  ;  that 
was  very  kind  in  you.  I  wish  we  could  send  you  anything  in 
return. 

Yes,  we  were  surprised  to  find  you  had  enlisted.  As  day  after 
day  went  by,  and  we  missed  you  and  the  pleasant  messages  and 
glimpses  of  you,  my  wife  would  say,  "  I  know  Mr.  P.  has  en- 
listed ;  "  but  /  thought  it  more  likely  you  had  "  enlisted  "  in 
some  long  case  in  another  county.  A  call  at  your  office  (at  home 
they  would  not  let  me  rest  till  I  had  inquired  for  you)  told  us  the 
story;  and  then  we  enjoyed  the  "Traveller"  letter,  and  now  this, 
—  so  we  know  all  about  you. 

And  you  were  the  first  of  the  "  body  guard  "  1  to  smell  powder ! 
'T  was  very  gallant  in  you  and  spirited  ;  we  '11  never  forget  it.  ... 

1  An  allusion  to  the  young  men  who  during  the  mobs  of  the  winter  of  1860- 
1861  accompanied  Mr.  Phillips  to  public  meetings,  some  of  them  passing 
several  nights  at  his  house.  See  G.  W.  Smalley's  article  in  Harper's  Monthly 
for  June,  1894,  p.  134,  entitled  "Memories  of  Wendell  Phillips." 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA.  5 

Sumner  has  spent  an  evening  with  me,  —  the  best  man  in  your 
party,  I  think ;  the  only  one  (we  '11  put  you  out  of  consideration, 
seeing  you  are  now  nothing  but  a  private  !)  who  would  not  soil 
his  personal  honor  to  serve  his  party  or  himself.  I  won't  write 
you  all  he  said,  for  other  eyes  than  yours  may  see  this  sheet ; 
but  one  thing  any  one  may  know.  He  said  your  speech  on  the 
Personal  Liberty  law l  was  "  the  ablest  speech  he  ever  knew  made 
in  Massachusetts  by  one  of  your  age ; "  turning  to  me  he  added, 
"neither  you  nor  I  ever  did  as  well  at  his  years."  There,  mix 
that  with  your  black  coffee  and  salt  pork,  and  be  nourished 
accordingly  ! 

My  wife  bids  me  inclose  these  flowers,  which  have  been  brought 
us  from  Milton  (not  from  your  mother's  house),  —  the  first,  or 
nearly  so,  we  've  had,  for  it  is  very  cold,  the  spring  almost  a  month 
behind  its  time ;  but  then  we  are  all  patriotic,  and  say  to  each 
other,  "  Well,  it  is  the  better  for  those  good  fellows  off  south  to  put 
off  summer." 

Good-by,  with  congratulations  and  the  kindest  remembrances 
and  best  wishes  from  all  of  us. 

Yours  faithfully, 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 


Complaints  having  reached  Governor  Andrew  that  the  Third 
Regiment  was  suffering  from  scanty  food  and  general  ill  treatment, 
he  replied  to  the  gentleman  (a  resident  of  Plymouth,  Mass.)  who 
communicated  them,  saying  among  other  things  :  "  E.  L.  Pierce  of 
our  bar  is  in  the  Third  Regiment,  and  I  see  his  letters ;  no  such 
complaints  are  made  by  him."  The  same  day  he  wrote  to  Mr. 
Pierce  as  follows  :  — 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  BOSTON, 
May  22,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  I  enclose  's  letter,  and  the 

memoranda  of  my  pencil  reply.     I  wish  you  would  send  a  careful 
report  on  all  points  of  interest,  and,  if  need  be,  ask  in  my  name  — 

1  E.  L.  Pierce's  Argument,  February  i,  1861,  before  a  Legislative  Com- 
mittee against  the  repeal  of  the  Personal  Liberty  law. 


6  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA. 

and  let  this  be  your  authority  — a  furlough  from  the  Commander 
of  the  Fortress  to  enable  you  to  come  back  by  the  return  of  the 
"  Pembroke  "  and  report  in  person.  I  have  read  your  letters  here 
with  great  pleasure ;  and  I  am  full  of  admiration  at  your  devoted- 
ness  and  cheerful  patriotism. 

I  am  ever 

Yours,  in  great  haste, 

J.  A.  ANDREW. 


General  Butler,' then  commanding  at  Fortress  Monroe,  in  grant- 
ing the  desired  furlough,  wrote  (May  26)  to  Governor  Andrew : 
"  I  am  most  happy  that  a  gentleman  of  intelligence,  probity,  and 
character,  who  has  seen,  known,  and  felt  all  the  privations  of  the 
Massachusetts  troops  at  Fortress  Monroe,  is  to  report  to  you. 
To  him  I  refer  for  a  detailed  statement  of  the  treatment  and 
comfort  of  the  troops." 

Mr.  Pierce  was  absent  from  his  regiment  from  May  26  to  June 
1 6.  Returning  through  Washington,  he  was  taken  by  his  friend 
Secretary  Chase  to  see  in  their  offices  President  Lincoln,  Secre- 
tary Cameron,  and  General  Scott.  While  in  Boston,  Mr.  Pierce 
was  requested  by  Governor  Andrew  to  put  in  writing  for  publica- 
tion his  oral  statement  concerning  Massachusetts  soldiers  at  Fort 
Monroe.  It  is  here  given,  as  it  appeared  in  the  Boston  "  Daily 
Advertiser,"  June  i,  1861. 


MILTON,  May  31,  1861. 
To  His  EXCELLENCY  Gov.  ANDREW: 

Your  Excellency  has  been  pleased  to  request  me,  while 
here  on  a  brief  furlough  and  awaiting  the  return  of  the 
"  Pembroke "  to  Fortress  Monroe,  to  report  upon  such 
matters  connected  with  the  health  and  comfort  of  the 
volunteers  of  the  Massachusetts  Militia  now  at  the  fort 
as  may  occur  to  me.  With  such  a  request  coming  from 
such  a  source,  and  relating  to  my  comrades  in  arms,  it  is 
my  duty  to  comply. 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN  VIRGINIA.  7 

It  is  proper  for  me  to  state  that  I  am  a  private  in  Co.  L 
of  the  Third  Regiment,  and  to  it  my  answer  ought  specially 
to  relate.  But  I  may  add  that  my  residence  and  associa- 
tions in  Norfolk  County  and  vicinity  have  brought  me  into 
daily  companionship  with  the  soldiers  of  the  Fourth  Regi- 
ment. It  is  proper  also  to  state  that  ever  since  I  left  Boston 
I  have  had  the  fare  of  a  private;  have  been  subjected  to 
his  drills  and  discipline ;  have  performed  all  his  fatigue 
duty,  such  as  loading  barrels  of  beef,  pork,  beans,  and 
other  provisions,  dragging  columbiads,  as  well  as  the  police 
duty  of  cleaning  our  quarters;  and  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  single  day,  I  have  served  on  guard  whenever  that 
duty  has  devolved  on  our  company.  This  has  enabled 
me  to  learn  something  of  the  feelings  and  wants  of  a  private 
soldier. 

And  here  at  the  outset,  speaking  for  myself,  —  and,  as 
I  think  I  can,  for  my  comrades, —  I  can  say  that  the  hour 
or  the  moment  has  not  been  since  we  left  Boston  Harbor 
on  Thursday,  i8th  April,  that  we  have  regretted  our  enlist- 
ment among  the  volunteers  of  Massachusetts,  to  whom, 
under  the  Providence  of  God,  has  been  intrusted  the 
honor  of  our  beloved  Commonwealth,  the  integrity  of  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  and  the  interests  of  a 
sacred  cause.  To  be  sure,  we  have  had  privations;  but 
they  sunk  into  trifles  when  we  recalled  the  winter  encamp- 
ments of  the  Revolution  ;  and  they  became  luxuries  when 
sweetened  by  the  remembrance  of  the  country  we  served. 

It  is  now  a  part  of  the  record  of  the  times  that  the  "  S. 
R.  Spaulding,"  having  on  board  the  Third  Regiment, 
then  partially  filled,  left  Boston  Harbor  on  Thursday,  i8th 
April,  at  ii  A.  M.,  and  arrived  at  Fortress  Monroe  on  the 
following  Saturday  at  the  same  hour,  —  making  a  quick 
passage  of  forty-eight  hours,  and  reaching  her  destination 


8  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA. 

about  two  hours  later  than  the  disembarkation  of  the 
Fourth  Regiment  from  the  "  State  of  Maine,"  which  came 
from  Fall  River  via  New  York.  The  worst  part  of  our 
soldier's  life  was  experienced  on  this  vessel,  —  partly  due 
to  the  necessities  of  the  case,  and  partly  to  the  officers  of 
the  boat.  A  portion  of  the  regiment,  my  own  company 
among  them,  were  put  on  the  lowest  deck,  —  usually  ap- 
propriated to  freight,  and  reached  by  two  flights  of 
stairs,  badly  ventilated, —  where  we  lay  at  night  crowded 
together.  In  view  of  the  exigency  which  required  our 
speedy  transportation,  this  hardship  was  in  the  main 
necessary.  Besides  that,  however,  our  food  was  bad. 
The  tea  and  coffee  distributed  to  us  were  the  most  unde- 
sirable beverages  I  have  ever  tasted.  Better  could  have 
been  served  to  us,  and  was  in  fact  served  to  the  officers,  — 
for  I  once  succeeded  in  buying  some  of  the  steward,  but 
failed  in  my  second  attempt.  Of  course  these  inconven- 
iences were  brief,  lasting  only  two  days ;  but  you  may  be 
assured  that  we  welcomed  the  hour  when  we  disembarked 
from  the  "  S.  R.  Spaulding." 

About  noon  on  Saturday,  2Oth  April,  we  entered  the 
fort,  our  eyes  gladdened  by  the  bloom  of  an  apple- 
orchard  in  front  of  it.  We  were  then  disabled  by  the  sea- 
sickness which  many  of  us  had  passed  through,  by  the 
want  of  nourishing  sleep,  of  good  air  at  night,  and  of 
proper  food  when  we  were  in  a  condition  to  take  it.  After 
stacking  our  guns,  and  exchanging  congratulations  with 
our  comrades  of  the  Fourth,  we  had  a  dinner  on  the  grass, 
of  crackers  and  cold  ham, — excellent  ham  it  was,  too. 
Still,  it  was  generally  felt  that  before  we  advanced  farther 
we  needed  rest,  sleep,  and  particularly  a  soldier's  discipline. 
For  one,  I  had  not  fired  a  musket  since  I  was  sixteen  years 
old,  and  never  with  a  ball  cartridge ;  and  I  hardly  think 
that  my  case  was  entirely  exceptional.  But  at  4  P.  M.,  or 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA.  9 

a  little  later,  while  many  were  stretched  on  the  grass, 
attempting  a  nap,  we  were  called  into  line,  expecting 
to  march  to  quarters,  but,  as  we  were  at  once  informed, 
to  go  to  Norfolk  in  the  United  States  ship  "  Pawnee,"  to 
retake  the  Gosport  navy-yard  if  already  captured  by  the 
secessionists,  or  to  defend  it  if  still  in  loyal  hands. 

Virginia  had  seceded,  and  we  received  the  news  as  we 
reached  the  fort  It  was  not  known  at  the  fort  who  held 
the  navy-yard,  or  at  the  yard  who  still  held  the  fort.  A 
mysterious  uncertainty  brooded  over  all  things.  The  test 
of  loyalty  was  being  applied  to  divide  the  traitor  from  the 
true.  No  man  could  trust  his  fellow.  Mechanics  employed 
on  war  vessels  needing  repairs,  left ;  and  officers  necessary 
to  command  others,  resigned  when  they  received  orders 
to  sail.  It  was  not  known  at  the  yard  that  the  soldiers  of 
Massachusetts  were  on  their  way  to  the  rescue,  or  that 
the  "  Pawnee  "  was  at  hand,  —  she  having  been  off  Charles- 
ton at  the  bombardment  of  Sumter,  thence  having  hurried 
to  Washington  and  back  to  Fort  Monroe,  where  she  ar- 
rived on  the  same  day  with  our  regiments.  Thus  unaware, 
the  officers  of  the  yard  had  begun  the  scuttling  of  ships 
and  the  spiking  of  guns,  the  first  sounds  which  we  heard 
on  arriving  at  the  yard. 

Our  men,  though  disabled  and  undisciplined,  maintained 
their  composure,  and  marched  seriously  but  firmly  to  their 
duty.  For  the  first  time  in  their  lives,  they  trod  the  deck 
of  a  man-of-war,  ready  for  an  encounter.  We  left  the  fort 
about  5  or  6  o'clock  P.  M.  ;  loaded  our  muskets,  expecting 
a  contest  with  musket  or  bayonet,  reaching  the  navy-yard 
at  about  8|  P.  M.,  lighted  on  our  errand  by  the  rays  of  a 
silver  moonlight.  When  within  pistol-shot  of  the  "  Cum- 
berland," our  signal  being  unheard,  and  we  being  mistaken 
for  secessionists,  the  match  was  about  to  be  applied  to 
the  guns  of  the  "  Cumberland"  and  of  the  "  Pennsylvania," 


I0  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA. 

when  it  was  arrested  by  the  vigorous  voice  of  our  intrepid 
boatswain  crying  out,  "They  are  going  to  fire  on 'us,  Sir! 
United  States  ship  '  Pawnee,'  Sir !  "  and  cheers  and  "  Hail 
Columbia  "  from  their  bands  then  welcomed  us.  Disem- 
barking, for  four  hours  we  continued  the  work  of  destruc- 
tion already  begun,  some  rolling  several  thousands  of  heavy 
shells  into  the  sea,  while  others  laid  powder-trains,  and  still 
others  stood  guard. 

We  were  very  weary  when  we  went  again  on  board  the 
"  Pawnee."  On  our  return,  having  the  "  Cumberland  "  in 
tow,  we  passed  under  the  batteries  of  the  secessionists, 
which  we  had  also  passed  on  our  way  down ;  and  as  the 
powder-trains  had  taken  effect,  and  the  ships  were  burn- 
ing, the  officers  of  the  "Cumberland"  expected  that  they 
would  now  open  upon  us  in  revenge  for  this  destruction. 
The  batteries  did  not,  however,  for  some  reason,  open. 
We  passed  safely  on,  and  reached  the  fort  at  six  on  Sun- 
day morning,  where  we  received  the  congratulations  of  the 
regular  soldiers  and  of  our  comrades  of  the  Fourth,  both 
of  whom  had  expected  to  see  us  with  thinned  ranks.  Hap- 
pily we  were  safe ;  had  secured  most  important  munitions 
of  war  from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels ;  had  in 
six  days  from  the  summons  of  the  President  penetrated 
farther  South  than  any  other  regiment  has  yet  gone,  and 
executed  what  your  Excellency  in  your  message  to  the 
Legislature  at  its  extra  session  has  been  pleased  to  call 
"  a  brilliant  movement,  both  of  danger  and  success." 

I  have  been  thus  particular  about  our  passage  to  Fortress 
Monroe  and  our  expedition  to  Norfolk,  because  although 
we  have  had  privations,  they  involved  the  only  real  hard- 
ships we  have  been  called  to  meet. 

During  our  camp  life,  we  have  secured  more  conveni- 
ences the  longer  we  have  remained.  At  first,  we  were  in 
tents,  slept  only  on  our  blankets,  had  our  cooking  done 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA.  n 

out  of  doors  with  an  open  fire,  ate  our  meat  with  our  fin- 
gers and  even  without  plates.  After  two  or  three  weeks  of 
camping  in  tents,  we  had  quarters  assigned  us,  where  we 
still  are,  except  one  or  two  companies  who  occupy  tents 
on  a  raised  platform.  In  this  statement  I  do  not  include 
any  companies  who  arrived  since  we  first  came,  some  of 
whom  are  in  tents  and  others  in  buildings  outside  the 
fort.  For  the  last  three  weeks  our  company  has  had  mat- 
tresses formerly  used  in  the  Hygeia  Hotel,  by  what  funds 
procured  I  do  not  know,  but  we  have  not  been  asked  to 
pay  for  them.  Other  companies,  perhaps  not  all,  have 
also  procured  mattresses.  I  have  seen  soldiers  make  a 
mattress  by  sewing  their  two  blankets  together,  and  filling 
with  straw,  thus  making  a  bed  for  two.  We  have  now 
mugs  or  bowls,  and  generally  a  knife,  fork,  and  spoon 
each,  which  we  have  bought  at  the  sutler's;  and  recently 
some  plates  have  been  furnished  to  those  not  already  pro- 
vided with  them. 

As  to  clothing,  it  may  be  stated  that  on  our  sudden 
departure  we  came  generally  unprepared,  each  dressed  in 
his  every-day  suit,  and  that  in  many  instances  well  worn ; 
and  at  first  there  was  a  deficiency  in  this  respect.  This 
was,  however,  remedied  by  an  arrival  of  pantaloons  and 
shoes  sent  by  the  State.  When  I  left,  there  was  said  to  be 
a  deficiency  of  sevens  and  eights  shoes,  although  enough 
of  the  larger  size.  We  have  been  amply  provided  with 
woollen  shirts  and  drawers,  and  have  had  a  cotton  shirt 
each,  which  has  been  little  worn.  Our  State  overcoats 
have  answered  their  purpose  well.  The  blankets  will 
answer  for  the  warm  season,  —  although  not  heavy  enough 
for  the  winter,  or  to  make  a  comfortable  bed  in  the  absence 
of  a  mattress  or  of  a  good  amount  of  straw.  I  have  heard 
some  of  the  officers  of  companies  suggest  the  expediency 
of  India-rubber  capes  to  be  worn  on  stormy  days  when 


12  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER  IN   VIRGINIA. 

we  are  on  guard  or  marching,  or  to  spread  on  the  ground 
when  we  are  called  from  the  fort  to  encamp  on  the  field. 
The  suggestion  appears  reasonable,  although  I  cannot 
quote  in  its  behalf  any  conclusive  authority. 

The  season  for  that  section  of  country  has  thus  far  been 
unusually  cold,  May  not  differing  much  from  the  same 
month  as  it  is  usually  here.  The  officers  within  ten  days 
have  had  fires  in  their  quarters,  and  we  have  found  over- 
coats comfortable,  generally  in  the  evening  and  occasion- 
ally at  morning  drills.  Sunday  last — the  day  I  left  — 
was  the  first  uncomfortably  warm  day.  It  was  thought 
that  the  Havelock  sun-cap  would  be  of  advantage  in  the 
summer,  protecting  particularly  the  back  of  the  neck,  and 
especially  on  a  march.  Major-General  Butler  wore  one 
as  he  arrived  at  the  fort  on  the  22d  inst,  and  some  other 
officers  have  worn  them,  although  until  Sunday  last  there 
has  been  no  heat  requiring  their  general  use.  Straw  hats 
were  also  thought  desirable;  the  Foxborough  company, 
probably  through  the  liberality  of  the  citizens  of  that  town, 
had  been  provided  with  a  neat  pattern.  But  on  leaving 
the  fort  for  a  march,  it  would  not  be  safe  to  go  with  a 
straw  hat  only.  It  may  be  well  to  add  that,  as  I  am  in- 
formed, the  sun-caps,  India-rubber  capes  or  blankets,  and 
the  smaller  pattern  of  shoes  have,  in  considerable  quanti- 
ties, been  recently  forwarded  by  the  State  authorities. 

As  to  a  dress-parade  suit,  a  few  words  may  be  sufficient. 
Something  of  the  kind  is  thought  desirable  to  secure  uni- 
formity and  a  good  appearance  to  a  regiment,  and  as 
encouraging  the  soldiers  to  better  drills.  Most  companies 
came  unprovided  with  these,  and  our  dress-suit  has  been 
at  times  rather  various, — latterly  becoming  uniform  by 
the  wearing  of  pantaloons  of  same  color,  and  a  blue  shirt. 
Just  as  I  left,  a  new  uniform  had  arrived,  but  had  not  yet 
been  distributed.  One  or  two  companies,  as  that  from 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER  IN   VIRGINIA.  13 

New  Bedford,  brought  a  handsome  dress-suit;  but  it  was 
rather  too  showy  for  actual  service,  requiring  more  labor 
to  keep  it  clean,  and  being  more  likely  to  soil.  The 
citizens  of  Hingham  have  provided  the  company  from  that 
town,  of  the  Fourth  Regiment,  with  a  plain  suit  of  cadet 
gray,  which  appeared  well. 

The  food  of  our  regiment  is  the  next  point  which  invites 
attention.  Our  rations,  as  to  quantity,  except  in  one  or 
two  instances,  have  been  all  that  was  desired.  Those 
exceptions  occurred  at  the  time  of  our  unexpected  arrival, 
as  well  as  on  the  arrival  of  the  Vermont  regiment,  —  in  the 
last  case  being  reduced  to  half-rations  of  fresh  bread,  and 
furnished  with  hard  bread  to  supply  the  deficiency.  Our 
staple  food  has  been  coffee,  baker's  bread,  salt  pork  or 
beef,  changed  at  times  by  beans  or  rice  soup.  Once  we 
have  had  fish;  and  we  have  had  fresh  meat  not  much 
more  than  ten  times.  The  quality  of  these  articles  has 
not  been  complained  of.  The  cooking,  except  the  baking 
of  the  bread,  is  done  by  some  member  of  the  company,  who 
is  thereby  exempted  from  other  duty,  —  selected  by  its 
members  generally,  or  by  its  officers,  —  and  who  is  changed 
if  proved  incompetent.  It  would  be  strange  if  no  com- 
petent cook  could  be  found  in  the  company.  Of  course, 
under  such  an  arrangement  there  will  be  various  grades  of 
excellence  in  cooking  in  the  different  companies.  The 
companies  in  quarters  have  been  provided  with  good 
stoves  and  boilers,  to  make  coffee  or  soup  in. 

Our  men  have  much  desired  that  their  rations  of  salt  pork, 
of  which  we  have  had  so  much  more  than  other  meats, 
should  be  varied  by  ham,  or  if  practicable  by  fresh  meat. 
Upon  this  point  more  complaint  has  been  made  than  on 
any  other,  and  it  is  for  others  to  say  whether  the  cause  can 
be  removed.  Some  ham  was  sent  to  our  troops,  but  I 
understand  that  it  was  properly  reserved  for  a  march. 


IA  A  PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA. 

We  have  had  coffee  twice  a  day  during  a  great  portion  of 
the  time;  too  much,  probably,  for  health.  Our  company 
has  had  tea  for  supper  a  portion  of  the  time,  which,  it  was 
stated  to  me,  had  been  furnished  by  the  citizens  of  New 
Bedford.  Either  tea  or  chocolate  — the  latter  being  com- 
mended by  medical  men  for  nutritious  and  health-promot- 
ing qualities  — should  be  substituted  in  part  for  coffee. 
The  State  authorities,  as  I  am  informed,  have  met  these 
wants  in  recent  consignments  by  the  "  Pembroke." 

A  quantity  of  dried  apples  has  been  sent  to  us  by  the 
State,  and  they  have  been  served  to  us  several  times.  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  no  other  article  of  food  has 
been  furnished  to  the  soldiers  by  the  State  so  grateful 
to  the  appetite  and  so  conducive  to  health,  particularly 
desirable  in  the  absence  of  vegetables,  and  where  salt  pork 
and  coffee  have  had  so  large  a  place  in  our  rations.  We 
have  had  potatoes  but  few  times.  These  or  any  other 
vegetables  are  relished,  and  will  probably  be  sent  as  much 
as  convenient.  The  soldiers  generally  desired  molasses  to 
eat  upon  their  bread,  and  some  had  bought  it  at  the 
sutler's.  That  desire  is  enforced  by  dietetic  reasons,  and 
has  been  recently  answered  by  a  consignment  by  the 
"  Cambridge."  We  have  had  some  excellent  cheese  a  few 
times,  and  it  was  much  liked.  No  butter  has  been  served 
to  us,  and  in  the  warm  season  that  is  approaching,  partic- 
ularly as  molasses  is  to  be  furnished,  the  expediency  of 
providing  it  is  questionable. 

In  concluding  these  suggestions  in  relation  to  food, 
I  can  say  that  I  have  relished  my  own  as  much  as  I 
have  relished  more  luxurious  living  after  less  physical 
exertion. 

Besides  the  stores  provided  by  the  general  government, 
the  kindness  of  friends  has  superadded  numerous  del- 
icacies, brought  by  the  "Pembroke"  and  "Cambridge." 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA.  15 

A  military  man  might  suggest  some  impolicy  in  these 
donations ;  but  I  know  that  the  day  after  the  first  arrival 
of  the  "  Cambridge  "  broke  in  upon  our  isolation,  bring- 
ing mails  and  packages,  remembered  as  we  had  been  by 
loving  hearts  at  home,  we  could  have  moved  with  firmer 
souls  and  steadier  steps  to  meet  an  advancing  column. 

As  to  the  labor  required  of  us,  —  a  matter,  of  course, 
beyond  any  control  of  the  State,  —  I  may  say  that  when 
we  arrived,  the  regulars  were  being  subjected  to  most 
laborious  duty  in  keeping  guard  and  mounting  cannon, 
not  having  had  more  than  four  hours'  sleep  for  several 
nights,  and  none  on  the  night  previous  to  our  arrival,  being 
in  hourly  expectation  of  an  attack.  The  land  side  of  the 
fort  was  weakly  defended,  there  being  no  casemated  guns  in 
that  part,  and  it  was  necessary  to  mount  a  large  number 
of  eight  and  ten-inch  columbiads,  weighing  nine  thousand 
or  fifteen  thousand  pounds,  and  requiring  fifty  or  seventy- 
five  men  to  man  the  ropes,  as  there  are  no  oxen  or  horses 
for  the  purpose.  Besides,  some  thousands  of  barrels  of 
provisions  were  arriving  to  stock  the  fort  for  a  siege,  which 
had  to  be  taken  from  the  transports  to  the  storehouses  in 
the  fort.  This  work,  necessary  for  the  defence  of  the  post 
and  for  our  own  safety,  devolved  on  the  Third  and  Fourth 
regiments.  It  was  imposed  on  us  one  day  in  five  or 
six,  and  guard  duty  about  as  often.  The  work  was  hard, 
but  not  harder  than  the  labor  of  farmers  in  busy  sea- 
sons, or  of  persons  engaged  in  heavy  mechanical  work. 
Many  of  our  men,  it  is  true,  had  been  in  clerkly  employ- 
ments or  the  lighter  mechanical  trades;  but  I  am  not 
aware  that  any  suffered  in  health  from  this  cause,  as  we 
had  a  large  number  at  work,  and  the  amount  each  did 
depended  on  his  own  notions  of  what  he  was  able  or  bound 
to  do.  The  lieutenants,  sergeants,  or  corporals  among  the 
regulars,  under  whom  we  were  placed,  treated  us  in  every 


j6  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER  IN   VIRGINIA. 

instance  with  kindness.  Sometimes  I  thought  of  myself 
as  a  Boston  lawyer  bossed  by  an  Irish  corporal,  and  the 
practical  joke  seemed  to  lighten  my  labors.  Since  the 
arrival  of  the  First  Vermont  Regiment,  and  the  filling 
up  of  our  own,  our  guard  and  fatigue  duty  has  not  been 
thought  severe  or  burdensome. 

As  to  the  discipline  and  treatment  we  have  received 
from  our  own  officers,  it  is  a  delicate  duty  for  a  private  to 
speak, —  and  yet  it  is  possible  to  speak  with  fidelity  to 
myself  and  in  strict  deference  to  military  subordination. 
On  this  head  I  do  not  know  that  any  complaint  is  now 
made.  We  may  have  been  once  or  twice  subjected  to 
drills  at  double-quick  time,  which  if  kept  up  would  have 
surpassed  the  strength  of  many  of  the  privates.  Although 
myself  not  having  the  average  muscular  strength,  I  went 
through  them,  and,  if  weary  at  the  time,  experienced  no 
permanent  evil  effects,  —  and  any  objection  of  this  kind, 
on  proper  representation,  was  removed.  Our  regiments, 
both  officers  and  men,  are  composed  mainly  of  existing 
companies  of  the  volunteer  militia,  the  members  joining 
and  the  officers  being  selected  without  reference  to  actual 
service.  There  are  many  men  among  them  who  could  not 
pass  a  surgical  examination  for  admission  to  the  army, 
and  time  may  show  that  many  of  the  officers  are  without 
the  skill  and  qualities  which  become  a  military  com- 
mander. But  I  am  sure  that  we  have  no  officers  at  For- 
tress Monroe  who  have  treated  the  men  with  intended 
harshness,  or  who  have  persisted  in  imposing  on  them 
burdens  beyond  their  power  to  sustain  when  the  case  was 
properly  presented.  On  this  point,  as  well  as  on  that  of 
food,  there  is  an  important  consideration.  Although  our 
men  were  taken  without  surgical  examination,  and  not  yet 
learned  in  the  arts  of  camp-life  or  acclimated  to  the  new 
latitude,  the  hospital  returns  will  not  show  more  cases  of 


A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER   IN   VIRGINIA.  17 

sickness  than  among  the  same  number  of  persons  at  home  ; 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  health  of  the  men  is  one 
of  the  best  tests  of  their  treatment. 

The  question  has  been  put  to  me  whether  the  troops 
enlisted  for  three  months  will  re-enlist  for  three  years. 
That  question  can  be  answered  only  by  individual  assur- 
ances and  by  time.  It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the 
volunteer  companies  now  existing,  organized  without  much 
reference  to  actual  service,  or  at  least  service  outside  the 
State,  formed  the  basis  of  the  original  enlistment.  They 
were  summoned  to  meet  an  immediate  exigency,  and  as 
patriot  citizens  they  met  it  without  hesitation,  bearing  to  a 
remote  field  the  arms  which  the  government  had  confided  to 
them.  They  left  their  homes,  most  without  a  day's,  some 
without  an  hour's,  preparation  ;  without  opportunity  to  set- 
tle their  accounts,  or  to  dispose  of  the  most  important 
business.  Some  had  no  time  to  bid  farewell  to  their 
dearest  relatives,  and  all  went  without  adequate  provision 
for  a  soldier's  wants,  at  least  for  a  protracted  term  of 
service.  They  have  already  exposed  themselves  to  the 
dangers  of  war,  with  more  probably  in  store  for  the  com- 
ing six  weeks ;  have  saved  Fortress  Monroe,  the  key  to 
the  Chesapeake,  to  Virginia,  to  the  border  States,  and 
exercising  a  controlling  power  over  the  rebellious  region. 
It  would  not  be  strange  if  some  of  them  were  willing  that 
others,  now  anxious  to  supply  their  places,  should  have 
the  opportunity;  or  if  all  should  desire,  before  entering 
on  a  three  years'  term,  to  close  up  their  business,  and  for 
a  time  find  new  vigor  among  the  affections  of  kindred  and 
the  associations  of  home. 

In  bringing  this  statement,  too  long  drawn  out,  to  a 
close,  let  me  say,  that,  although  as  a  private  soldier  I  have 
had  an  opportunity  to  know  something  of  his  labors  and 


!g  A   PRIVATE   SOLDIER  IN   VIRGINIA. 

desires,  my  experience  is  limited  to  six  brief  weeks ;  and 
that  though  this  communication  may  furnish  suggestions, 
it  is  quite  likely  to  be  in  some  respects  erroneous.  But 
the  truth  will,  I  know,  vindicate  the  assertion,  confidently 
made,  that  Massachusetts  has  followed  her  sons  into  the 
field  with  anxious  solicitude,  and  that  they  have  endured 
nothing  to  be  compared  to  the  glory  of  being  the  de- 
fenders of  their  country  in  its  imperilled  hour. 
I  am  truly 

Your  servant  and  friend, 

EDWARD  L.  PIERCE. 

The  following  letter  from  Hon.  John  G.  Palfrey,  of  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  a  veteran  of  the  Antislavery  cause  and  author  of  the  "  His- 
tory of  New  England,"  is  appropriately  given  in  this  place  :  — 

June  i,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  When  I  saw  you  to-day,  I  had  not 
read  your  letter  or  heard  of  it.  It  makes  your  mark.  It  will  be 
matter  for  history,  no  one  can  tell  how  long.  Oh  that  I  had 
begun  to  write  the  story  of  New  England  twenty  years  ago  !  I  am 
much  too  old  now  to  work  down  to  your  time  ;  but  a  better  man 
will  build  on  my  slender  foundation,  and  you  will  be  clamped  into 
the  structure. 

Yours  truly, 

JOHN  G.  PALFREY. 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          19 


II. 


WHILE  serving  as  a  private  soldier,  Mr.  Pierce  watched  intently 
the  development  of  the  slavery  question.  He  was  requested  by 
General  Butler  to  take  permanent  charge  of  the  incoming  "  contra- 
bands "  when  their  number  had  reached  two  hundred,  and  to 
devise  a  scheme  for  employing  and  caring  for  them ; l  but  he 
preferred  at  that  time  to  remain  with  his  regiment.  His  last  days 
of  service,  however,  in  Virginia,  were  passed  in  charge  of  negroes 
at  Hampton,  of  whom  he  gave  an  account  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  November,  1861.  Though  not  appearing  till  the 
issue  of  that  number,  the  article  was  written  as  early  as  the  month 
of  August  preceding.  It  was  at  the  time  the  earliest  expression, 
in  a  formal  way,  on  the  vital  question  as  to  the  character  and  fate 
of  slaves  coming  under  the  flag  of  the  United  States.  So  sensi- 
tive was  the  public  mind  then  on  this  subject,  and  such  was  the 
prevailing  anxiety  to  keep  other  issues  than  that  of  the  preservation 
of  the  Union  out  of  the  war,  that  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  that 
magazine  (Mr.  James  T.  Fields)  called  on  the  author,  with  the  proof 
of  the  article  in  his  hand,  to  inquire  whether  he  was  to  be  understood 
in  the  conclusion  as  proposing  the  arming  of  negroes  as  soldiers. 
Mr.  Pierce's  answer  was :  "  Not  exactly  that ;  but  I  do  intend  to 
intimate  that  if  that  measure  should  be  adopted,  no  harm  would 
come  of  it."  With  this  explanation,  Mr.  Fields,  whose  personal 
sympathies  were  with  the  author's  view,  was  content ;  and  he  pub- 
lished the  paper,  herewith  given,  without  omission  or  change. 

1  The  very  friendly  relations  between  General  Butler  and  Mr.  Pierce, 
which  began  with  their  first  acquaintance  at  Fort  Monroe  in  1861,  continued 
till  1868,  when  they  were  finally  broken  by  the  former's  espousal  of  dan- 
gerous financial  heresies. 


20         THE  CONTRABANDS   AT  FORTRESS   MONROE. 


THE  CONTRABANDS  AT  FORTRESS  MONROE. 


IN  the  month  of  August,  1619,  a  Dutch  man-of-war 
from  Guinea  entered  James  River  and  landed  "twenty 
negars "  for  sale.  Such  is  the  brief  record  left  by  John 
Rolfe,  whose  name  is  honorably  associated  with  that  of 
Pocahontas.  This  was  the  first  importation  of  the  kind 
into  the  English  colonies,  and  the  source  of  existing  strifes. 
It  was  fitting  that  the  system  which  from  that  slave-ship 
had  been  spreading  over  the  continent  for  nearly  two 
centuries  and  a  half  should  yield,  for  the  first  time,  to  the 
logic  of  military  law  almost  upon  the  spot  of  its  origin. 
The  coincidence  may  not  inappropriately  introduce  what 
of  experience  and  reflection  the  writer  has  to  relate  of  a 
three-months'  soldier's  life  in  Virginia. 

On  the  morning  of  the  22d  of  May  last,  Major-General 
Butler,  welcomed  with  a  military  salute,  arrived  at  Fortress 
Monroe,  and  assumed  the  command  of  the  Department  of 
Virginia.  Hitherto  we  had  been  hemmed  up  in  the  pe- 
ninsula of  which  the  fort  occupies  the  main  part,  and  cut 
off  from  communication  with  the  surrounding  country. 
Until  within  a  few  days  our  forces  consisted  of  about  one 
thousand  men  belonging  to  the  Third  and  Fourth  regi- 
ments of  Massachusetts  militia,  and  three  hundred  regulars. 
The  only  movement  since  our  arrival  on  the  2Oth  of  April 
had  been  the  expedition  to  Norfolk  of  the  Third  Regiment, 
in  which  it  was  my  privilege  to  serve  as  a  private.  The 
fort  communicates  with  the  main-land  by  a  dike  or  cause- 
way about  half  a  mile  long,  and  a  wooden  bridge,  perhaps 


THE  CONTRABANDS  AT  FORTRESS  MONROE.    21 

three  hundred  feet  long;  and  then  there  spreads  out  a  tract 
of  country,  well  wooded  and  dotted  over  with  farms. 
Passing  from  this  bridge  for  a  distance  of  two  miles  north- 
westward, you  reach  a  creek  or  arm  of  the  bay  spanned  by 
another  wooden  bridge ;  and  crossing  it,  you  are  at  once 
in  the  ancient  village  of  Hampton,  having  a  population  of 
some  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants.  The  peninsula  on  which 
the  fort  stands,  the  causeway,  and  the  first  bridge  described 
are  the  property  of  the  United  States.  Nevertheless,  a 
small  picket-guard  of  the  secessionists  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  occupy  a  part  of  the  bridge,  sometimes  coming 
even  to  the  centre,  and  a  secession  flag  waved  in  sight  of 
the  fort.  On  the  13th  of  May,  the  rebel  picket-guard  was 
driven  from  the  bridge,  and  all  the  government  property 
was  taken  possession  of  by  a  detachment  of  two  companies 
from  the  Fourth  Regiment,  accompanied  by  a  dozen 
regulars  with  a  field-piece,  acting  under  the  orders  of 
Colonel  Dimick,  the  commander  of  the  post.  They  re- 
tired, denouncing  vengeance  on  Massachusetts  troops  for 
the  invasion  of  Virginia.  Our  pickets  then  occupied  the 
entire  bridge  and  a  small  strip  of  the  main-land  beyond, 
covering  a  valuable  well;  but  still  there  was  no  occupation 
in  force  of  any  but  government  property.  The  creation  of 
a  new  military  department,  to  the  command  of  which  a 
major-general  was  assigned,  was  soon  to  terminate  this 
isolation.  On  the  I3th  of  May  the  First  Vermont  Regi- 
ment arrived,  on  the  24th  the  Second  New  York ;  and  two 
weeks  later  our  forces  numbered  nearly  ten  thousand. 

On  the  23d  of  May,  General  Butler  ordered  the  first 
reconnoitring  expedition,  —  which  consisted  of  a  part  of 
the  Vermont  Regiment,  and  proceeded  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Phelps  over  the  dike  and  bridge  towards  Hamp- 
ton. They  were  anticipated,  and  when  in  sight  of  the 
second  bridge  saw  that  it  had  been  set  on  fire,  and,  hasten- 


22         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE, 

ing  forward,  extinguished  the  flames.  The  detachment 
then  marched  into  the  village.  A  parley  was  held  with  a 
secession  officer,  who  represented  that  the  men  in  arms  in 
Hampton  were  only  a  domestic  police.  Meanwhile  the 
white  inhabitants,  particularly  the  women,  had  generally 
disappeared.  The  negroes  gathered  around  our  men,  and 
their  evident  exhilaration  was  particularly  noted,  some  of 
them  saying,  "Glad  to  see  you,  Massa,"  and  betraying  the 
fact,  that,  on  the  approach  of  the  detachment,  a  field-piece 
stationed  at  the  bridge  had  been  thrown  into  the  sea. 
This  was  the  first  communication  between  our  army  and 
the  negroes  in  this  department. 

The  reconnoissance  of  the  day  had  more  important  re- 
sults than  were  anticipated.  Three  negroes,  owned  by 
Colonel  Mallory,  —  a  lawyer  of  Hampton  and  a  rebel 
officer,  —  taking  advantage  of  the  terror  prevailing  among 
the  white  inhabitants,  escaped  from  their  master,  skulked 
during  the  afternoon,  and  in  the  night  came  to  our  pickets. 
The  next  morning,  May  24,  they  were  brought  to  General 
Butler;  and  there,  for  the  first  time,  stood  the  Major-Gen- 
eral  and  the  fugitive  slave  face  to  face.  Being  carefully 
interrogated,  it  appeared  that  they  were  field-hands,  the 
slaves  of  an  officer  in  the  rebel  service,  who  purposed 
taking  them  to  Carolina  to  be  employed  in  military  opera- 
tions there.  Two  of  them  had  wives  in  Hampton,  one  a 
free-colored  woman,  and  they  had  Several  children  in  the 
neighborhood.  Here  was  a  new  question,  and  a  grave  one, 
on  which  the  government  had  as  yet  developed  no  policy. 
In  the  absence  of  precedents  or  instructions,  an  analogy 
drawn  from  international  law  was  applied.  Under  that  law, 
contraband  goods,  which  are  directly  auxiliary  to  military 
operations,  cannot  in  time  of  war  be  imported  by  neutrals 
into  an  enemy's  country,  and  may  be  seized  as  lawful  prize 
when  the  attempt  is  made  so  to  import  them.  It  will  be 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.         23 

seen,  that,  accurately  speaking,  the  term  applies  exclusively 
to  the  relation  between  a  belligerent  and  a  neutral,  and  not 
to  the  relation  between  belligerents.  Under  the  strict  law 
of  nations,  all  the  property  of  an  enemy  may  be  seized. 
Under  the  common  law,  the  property  of  traitors  is  forfeit. 
The  humaner  usage  of  modern  times  favors  the  waiving  of 
these  strict  rights,  but  allows,  without  question,  the  seizure 
and  confiscation  of  all  such  goods  as  are  immediately  aux- 
iliary to  military  purposes.  These  able-bodied  negroes, 
held  as  slaves,  were  to  be  employed  to  build  breastworks, 
to  transport  or  store  provisions,  to  serve  as  cooks  or 
waiters,  and  even  to  bear  arms.  Regarded  as  property, 
according  to  their  master's  claim,  they  could  be  efficiently 
used  by  the  rebels  for  the  purposes  of  the  rebellion,  and 
most  efficiently  by  the  government  in  suppressing  it.  Re- 
garded as  persons,  they  had  escaped  from  communities 
where  a  triumphant  rebellion  had  trampled  on  the  laws, 
and  only  the  rights  of  human  nature  remained;  and  they 
now  asked  the  protection  of  the  government  to  which,  in 
prevailing  treason,  they  were  still  loyal,  and  which  they 
were  ready  to  serve  as  best  they  could. 

The  three  negroes,  being  held  contraband  of  war,  were 
at  once  set  to  work  to  aid  the  masons  in  constructing  anew 
bakehouse  within  the  fort.  Thenceforward  the  term  "con- 
traband "  bore  a  new  signification,  with  which  it  will  pass 
into  history,  designating  the  negroes  who  had  been  held  as 
slaves,  now  adopted  under  the  protection  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  used  in  official  communications  at  the  fort; 
it  was  applied  familiarly  to  the  negroes,  who  stared  some- 
what, inquiring,  "  What  d'  ye  call  us  that  for  ?  "  Not  having 
Wheaton's  "Elements"  at  hand,  we  did  not  attempt  an 
explanation.  The  contraband  notion  was  adopted  by  Con- 
gress in  the  Act  of  July  6,  which  confiscates  slaves  used 
in  aiding  the  insurrection.  There  is  often  great  virtue  in 


24         THE  CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

such  technical  phrases  in  shaping  public  opinion;  they 
commend  practical  action  to  a  class  of  minds  little  devel- 
oped in  the  direction  of  the  sentiments,  which  would  be 
repelled  by  formulas  of  a  broader  and  nobler  import.  The 
venerable  gentleman  who  wears  gold  spectacles  and  reads 
a  conservative  daily,  prefers  confiscation  to  emancipation. 
He  is  reluctant  to  have  slaves  declared  "  freemen,"  but  has 
no  objection  to  their  being  declared  "  contrabands."  His 
whole  nature  rises  in  insurrection  when  Beecher  preaches 
in  a  sermon  that  a  thing  ought  to  be  done  because  it  is  a 
duty ;  but  he  yields  gracefully  when  Butler  issues  an  order 
commanding  it  to  be  done  because  it  is  a  military  necessity. 

On  the  next  day,  Major  John  B.  Gary  —  another  rebel 
officer,  late  principal  of  an  academy  in  Hampton,  a  dele- 
gate to  the  Charleston  convention,  and  a  seceder  with 
General  Butler  from  the  convention  at  Baltimore  —  came 
to  the  fort  with  a  flag  of  truce,  and,  claiming  to  act  as  the 
representative  of  Colonel  Mallory,  demanded  the  fugitives. 
He  reminded  General  Butler  of  his  obligations  under  the 
Federal  Constitution,  under  which  he  claimed  to  act.  The 
ready  reply  was,  that  the  Fugitive-Slave  Act  could  not  be 
invoked  for  the  reclamation  of  fugitives  from  a  foreign 
State,  which  Virginia  claimed  to  be ;  and  she  must  count 
it  among  the  infelicities  of  her  position,  if  so  far  at  least 
she  was  taken  at  her  word. 

The  three  pioneer  negroes  were  not  long  to  be  isolated 
from  their  race.  There  was  no  known  channel  of  commu- 
nication between  them  and  their  old  comrades ;  and  yet 
those  comrades  knew,  or  believed  with  the  certainty  of 
knowledge,  how  they  had  been  received.  If  inquired  of 
whether  more  were  coming,  their  reply  was,  that,  if  they 
were  not  sent  back,  others  would  understand  that  they 
were  among  friends,  and  more  would  come  the  next  day. 
Such  is  the  mysterious  spiritual  telegraph  which  runs 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          25 

through  the  slave  population :  proclaim  an  edict  of  eman- 
cipation in  the  hearing  of  a  single  slave  on  the  Potomac, 
and  in  a  few  days  it  will  be  known  by  his  brethren  on  the 
Gulf.  So,  on  the  night  of  the  Big  Bethel  affair,  a  squad 
of  negroes,  meeting  our  soldiers,  inquired  anxiously  the 
way  to  "  the  freedom  fort." 

The  means  of  communicating  with  the  fort  from  the 
open  country  became  more  easy,  when  on  the  24th  of  May 
(the  same  day  on  which  the  first  movement  was  made 
from  Washington  into  Virginia)  the  Second  New  York 
Regiment  made  its  encampment  on  the  Segar  farm,  lying 
near  the  bridge  which  connected  the  fort  with  the  main- 
land, —  an  encampment  soon  enlarged  by  the  First  Ver- 
mont and  other  New  York  regiments.  On  Sunday  morning, 
May  26,  eight  negroes  stood  before  the  quarters  of  Gen- 
eral Butler,  waiting  for  an  audience.  They  were  exam- 
ined in  part  by  Mr.  James  M.  Ashley,  M.  C.  from  Ohio, 
then  a  visitor  at  the  fort.  On  May  27,  forty-seven  negroes 
of  both  sexes  and  all  ages  —  from  three  months  to  eighty- 
five  years,  among  whom  were  half-a-dozen  entire  families 
—  came  in  one  squad.  Another  lot  of  a  dozen  good  field- 
hands  arrived  the  same  day;  and  then  they  continued  to 
come  by  twenties,  thirties,  and  forties.  They  were  as- 
signed buildings  outside  the  fort,  or  tents  within.  They 
were  set  to  work  as  servants  to  officers,  or  to  store  pro- 
visions landed  from  vessels,  —  thus  relieving  us  of  the 
fatigue  duty  which  we  had  previously  done,  except  that 
of  dragging  and  mounting  columbiads  on  the  ramparts  of 
the  fort,  a  service  which  some  very  warm  days  have  im- 
pressed on  my  memory. 

On  the  27th  of  May,  the  Fourth  Massachusetts  Regi- 
ment, the  First  Vermont,  and  some  New  York  regiments 
made  an  advance  movement  and  occupied  Newport  News 
(a  promontory  named  for  Captain  Christopher  Newport, 


26         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT  FORTRESS   MONROE. 

the  early  explorer),  so  as  more  effectually  to  enforce  the 
blockade  of  James  River.  There,  too,  negroes  came  in, 
who  were  employed  as  servants  to  the  officers.  One  of 
them,  when  we  left  the  fort,  more  fortunate  than  his 
comrades,  and  aided  by  a  benevolent  captain,  eluded  the 
vigilance  of  the  provost-marshal,  and  is  now  the  curiosity 
of  a  village  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston. 

It  was  now  time  to  call  upon  the  government  for  a 
policy  in  dealing  with  slave  society  thus  disrupted  and 
disorganized.  Elsewhere,  even  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Capitol,  the  action  of  military  officers  had  been  irregular, 
and  in  some  cases  in  palpable  violation  of  personal  rights. 
An  order  of  General  McDowell  excluded  all  slaves  from 
the  lines.  Sometimes  officers  assumed  to  decide  the 
question  whether  a  negro  was  a  slave,  and  to  deliver  him  to 
a  claimant,  when,  certainly  in  the  absence  of  martial  law, 
they  had  no  authority  in  the  premises,  under  the  Act  of 
Congress,  —  that  power  being  confided  to  commissioners 
and  marshals.  As  well  might  a  member  of  Congress  or 
a  State  sheriff  usurp  the  function.  Worse  yet,  in  defiance 
of  the  common  law,  they  made  color  a  presumptive  proof 
of  bondage.  In  one  case  a  free  negro  was  delivered  to  a 
claimant  under  this  process,  more  summary  than  any 
which  the  Fugitive-Slave  Act  provides.  The  colonel  of  a 
Massachusetts  regiment  showed  some  practical  humor  in 
dealing  with  a  pertinacious  claimant  who  asserted  title  to 
a  negro  found  within  his  lines,  and  had  brought  a  police- 
man along  with  him  to  aid  in  enforcing  it.  The  shrewd 
colonel  (a  Democrat  he  is),  retaining  the  policeman,  put 
both  the  claimant  and  claimed  outside  of  the  lines  together 

o 

to  try  their  fleetness.  The  negro  proved  to  be  the  better 
athlete,  and  was  heard  of  no  more.  This  capricious 
treatment  of  the  subject  was  fraught  with  serious  difficul- 
ties as  well  as  personal  injuries,  and  it  needed  to  be  dis- 
placed by  an  authorized  system. 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          27 

On  the  27th  of  May,  General  Butler,  having  in  a  pre- 
vious communication  reported  his  interview  with  Major 
Gary,  called  the  attention  of  the  war  department  to  the 
subject  in  a  formal  despatch,  —  indicating  the  hostile  pur- 
poses for  which  the  negroes  had  been  or  might  be  success- 
fully used,  stating  the  course  he  had  pursued  in  employing 
them,  and  recording  expenses  and  services,  and  suggest- 
ing pertinent  military,  political,  and  humane  considera- 
tions. The  Secretary  of  War,  under  date  of  the  3Oth  of 
May,  replied,  cautiously  approving  the  course  of  General 
Butler,  and  intimating  distinctions  between  interfering  with 
the  relations  of  persons  held  to  service  and  refusing  to 
surrender  them  to  their  alleged  masters,  which  it  is  not 
easy  to  reconcile  with  well-defined  views  of  the  new 
exigency,  or  at  least  with  a  desire  to  express  them.  The 
note  was  characterized  by  diplomatic  reserve  which  it  will 
probably  be  found  difficult  long  to  maintain. 

The  ever-recurring  question  continued  to  press  for  so- 
lution. On  the  6th  of  July  the  Act  of  Congress  was 
approved,  declaring  that  any  person  claiming  the  labor 
of  another  to  be  due  to  him,  and  permitting  such  party  to 
be  employed  in  any  military  or  naval  service  whatsoever 
against  the  government  of  the  United  States,  shall  forfeit 
his  claim  to  such  labor,  and  proof  of  such  employment 
shall  thereafter  be  a  full  answer  to  the  claim.  This  Act 
was  designed  for  the  direction  of  the  civil  magistrate,  and 
not  for  the  limitation  of  powers  derived  from  military  law. 
That  law,  founded  on  salus  reipublica;,  transcends  all  codes, 
and  lies  outside  of  forms  and  statutes.  John  Quincy  Adams, 
almost  prophesying  as  he  expounded,  declared,  in  1842, 
that  under  it  slavery  might  be  abolished.  Under  it,  there- 
fore, Major-General  Fremont,  in  a  recent  proclamation, 
declared  the  slaves  of  all  persons  within  his  department, 
who  were  in  arms  against  the  government,  to  be  free  men, 


28          THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

and  under  it  has  given  title-deeds  of  manumission.  Sub- 
sequently, President  Lincoln  limited  the  proclamation  to 
such  slaves  as  are  included  in  the  Act  of  Congress; 
namely,  the  slaves  of  rebels  used  in  directly  hostile  ser- 
vice. The  country  had  called  for  Jacksonian  courage,  and 
its  first  exhibition  was  promptly  suppressed.  If  the  revo- 
cation was  made  in  deference  to  protests  from  Kentucky, 
it  seems,  that,  while  the  loyal  citizens  of  Missouri  appeared 
to  approve  the  decisive  measure,  they  were  overruled  by 
the  more  potential  voice  of  other  communities  who  pro- 
fessed to  understand  their  affairs  better  than  they  did 
themselves.  But  if,  as  is  admitted,  the  commanding 
officer,  in  the  plenitude  of  military  power,  was  authorized 
to  make  the  order  within  his  department,  all  human  beings 
included  in  the  proclamation  thereby  acquired  a  vested 
title  to  their  freedom,  of  which  neither  Congress  nor  Pres- 
ident could  dispossess  them.  No  conclusive  behests  of 
law  necessitating  the  limitation,  it  cannot  rest  on  any  safe 
reasons  of  military  policy.  The  one  slave  who  carries  his 
master's  knapsack  on  a  march  contributes  far  less  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  rebel  army  than  the  one  hundred  slaves 
who  hoe  corn  on  his  plantation  with  which  to  replen- 
ish its  commissariat.  We  have  not  yet  emerged  from 
the  fine-drawn  distinctions  of  peaceful  times.  We  may 
imprison  or  slaughter  a  rebel,  but  we  may  not  unloose  his 
hold  on  a  person  he  has  claimed  as  a  slave.  We  may 
seize  all  his  other  property  without  question,  —  lands, 
houses,  cattle,  jewels;  but  his  asserted  property  in  man 
is  more  sacred  than  the  gold  which  overlay  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant,  and  we  may  not  profane  it.  This  reverence 
for  things  assumed  to  be  sacred,  which  are  not  so,  cannot 
long  continue.  The  government  can  well  turn  away  from 
the  enthusiast,  however  generous  his  impulses,  who  asks 
the  abolition  of  slavery  on  general  principles  of  philan- 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          29 

thropy,  for  the  reason  that  it  already  has  work  enough 
on  its  hands.  It  may  not  change  the  objects  of  the  war; 
but  it  must  of  necessity  at  times  shift  its  tactics  and  in- 
struments, as  the  exigency  demands.  Its  solemn  and  im- 
perative duty  is  to  look  every  issue,  however  grave  and 
transcendent,  firmly  in  the  face;  and  having  ascertained 
upon  mature  and  conscientious  reflection  what  is  neces- 
sary to  suppress  the  rebellion,  it  must  then  proceed  with 
inexorable  purpose  to  inflict  the  blows  where  rebellion  is 
the  weakest,  and  under  which  it  must  inevitably  fall. 

On  the  3Oth  of  July,  General  Butler,  being  still  unpro- 
vided with  adequate  instructions,  —  the  number  of  contra- 
bands having  now  reached  nine  hundred,  —  applied  to  the 
war  department  for  further  directions.  His  inquiries,  in- 
spired by  good  sense  and  humanity  alike,  were  of  the  most 
fundamental  character,  and  when  they  shall  have  received 
a  full  answer  the  war  will  be  near  its  end.  Assuming  the 
slaves  to  have  been  the  property  of  masters,  he  considers 
them  waifs  abandoned  by  their  owners,  in  which  the  gov- 
ernment as  a  finder  cannot  however  acquire  a  proprietary 
interest,  and  they  have  therefore  reverted  to  the  normal 
condition  of  those  made  in  God's  image,  —  "  if  not  free- 
born,  yet  free-manumitted,  sent  forth  from  the  hand  that 
held  them,  never  to  return."  The  author  of  that  document 
may  never  win  a  victor's  laurels  on  any  renowned  field,  but, 
depositing  it  in  the  archives  of  the  government,  he  leaves 
a  record  in  history  which  will  outlast  the  traditions  of 
battle  or  siege.  It  is  proper  to  add,  that  the  answer  of 
the  war  department,  so  far  as  its  meaning  is  clear,  leaves 
the  General  uninstructed  as  to  all  slaves  not  confiscated  by 
the  Act  of  Congress. 

The  documentary  history  being  now  completed,  the  per- 
sonal narrative  of  affairs  at  Fortress  Monroe  is  resumed. 


30         THE  CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS    MONROE. 

The  encampment  of  Federal  troops  beyond  the  penin- 
sula of  the  fort  and  in  the  vicinity  of  the  village  of 
Hampton  was  immediately  followed  by  an  hegira  of  its 
white  inhabitants,  burning,  when  they  fled,  as  much  of  the 
bridge  as  they  could.  On  the  28th  of  May,  a  detachment 
of  troops  entered  the  village  and  hoisted  the  stars  and 
stripes  on  the  house  of  Colonel  Mallory.  Picket-guards 
occupied  it  intermittently  during  the  month  of  June.  It 
was  not  until  the  first  day  of  July  that  a  permanent  en- 
campment was  made  there,  consisting  of  the  Third  Massa- 
chusetts Regiment,  which  moved  from  the  fort,  the  Fourth, 
which  moved  from  Newport  News,  and  the  Naval  Brigade, 
all  under  the  command  of  Brigadier-General  E.  W.  Peirce, 
—  the  camp  being  informally  called  Camp  Greble,  in  honor 
of  the  lieutenant  of  that  name  who  fell  bravely  in  the  dis- 
astrous affair  of  Big  Bethel.  Here  we  remained  until 
July  16,  when,  our  term  of  enlistment  having  expired,  we 
bade  adieu  to  Hampton,  its  ancient  relics,  its  deserted 
houses,  its  venerable  church,  its  trees  and  gardens,  its  con- 
trabands, all  so  soon  to  be  wasted  and  scattered  by  the 
torch  of  Virginia  vandals.  We  passed  over  the  bridge, 
the  rebuilding  of  which  was  completed  the  day  before, 
marched  to  the  fort,  exchanged  our  rifle  muskets  for  an 
older  pattern,  listened  to  a  farewell  address  from  General 
Butler,  bade  good-by  to  Colonel  Dimick,  and  embarked 
for  Boston.  It  was  during  this  encampment  at  Hampton, 
and  two  previous  visits,  somewhat  hurried,  while  as  yet  it 
was  without  a  permanent  guard,  that  my  personal  knowl- 
ledge  of  the  negroes,  of  their  feelings,  desires,  aspirations, 
capacities,  and  habits  of  life  was  mainly  obtained. 

A  few  words  of  local  history  and  description  may  illus- 
trate the  narrative.  Hampton  is  a  town  of  considerable 
historic  interest.  First  among  civilized  men,  the  illustrious 
adventurer  Captain  John  Smith,  with  his  comrades,  visited 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          31 

its  site  in  1607,  while  exploring  the  mouth  of  James  River 
to  find  a  home  for  the  first  colonists.  Here  they  smoked 
the  calumet  of  peace  with  an  Indian  tribe.  To  the  neigh- 
boring promontory,  where  they  found  good  anchorage  and 
hospitality,  they  gave  the  name  of  Point  Comfort,  which 
it  still  bears.  Hampton,  though  a  settlement  was  begun 
there  in  1610,  did  not  become  a  town  until  1705.  Hostile 
fleets  have  twice  appeared  before  it.  The  first  time  was 
in  October,  1775,  when  some  tenders  sent  by  Lord  Dun- 
more  to  destroy  it  were  repulsed  by  the  citizens,  aided  by 
the  Culpepper  riflemen.  Then  and  there  was  the  first 
battle  of  the  Revolution  in  Virginia.  Again  in  June,  1813, 
it  was  attacked  by  Admiral  Cockburn  and  General  Beck- 
with,  and  scenes  of  pillage  followed,  dishonorable  to  the 
British  soldiery.  Jackson,  in  his  address  to  his  army,  just 
before  the  Battle  of  New  Orleans,  conjured  his  soldiers  to 
remember  Hampton.  Until  the  recent  conflagration,  it 
abounded  in  ancient  relics.  Among  them  was  St.  John's 
Church,  the  main  body  of  which  was  of  imported  brick, 
and  built  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
fury  of  secession  irreverently  destroyed  this  memorial  of 
antiquity  and  religion,  which  even  a  foreign  soldiery  had 
spared.  One  inscription  in  the  graveyard  surrounding  the 
church  is  as  early  as  1701,  and  even  earlier  dates  are  found 
on  tombstones  in  the  fields  a  mile  distant.  The  court- 
house, a  clumsy  old  structure,  in  which  was  the  law-office 
of  Colonel  Mallory,  contained  judicial  records  of  a  very 
early  colonial  period ;  some,  which  I  examined,  bore  date 
of  1634.  Several  old  houses,  with  spacious  rooms  and  high 
ornamented  ceilings,  gave  evidence  that  at  one  time  they 
had  been  occupied  by  citizens  of  considerable  taste  and 
rank.  A  friend  of  mine  found  among  the  rubbish  of  a 
deserted  house  an  English  illustrated  edition  of  "  Paradise 
Lost,"  of  the  date  of  1725,  and  Boyle's  Oxford  edition  of 


32         THE   CONTRABANDS  AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

"  The  Epistles  of  Phalaris,"  famous  in  classical  controversy, 
printed  in  1718.  The  proximity  of  Fortress  Monroe,  of 
the  fashionable  watering-place  of  Old  Point,  and  of  the 
anchorage  of  Hampton  Roads,  has  contributed  to  the 
interest  of  the  town.  To  this  region  came  in  summer-time 
public  men  weary  of  their  cares,  army  and  navy  officers 
on  furlough  or  retired,  and  the  gay  daughters  of  Virginia. 
In  front  of  the  fort,  looking  seaward,  was  the  summer  resi- 
dence of  Floyd ;  between  the  fort  and  the  town  was  that 
of  John  Tyler.  President  Jackson  sought  refuge  from 
care  and  solicitation  at  the  Rip  Raps,  whither  he  was 
followed  by  his  devoted  friend  Mr.  Francis  P.  Blair.  So 
at  least  a  contraband  informed  me,  who  said  he  had  often 
seen  them  both  there. 

Nevertheless,  the  town  bore  no  evidence  of  thrift.  It 
looked  as  though  it  were  sleepy  and  indolent  in  the  best  of 
times,  having  oysters  for  its  chief  merchandise.  The  streets 
were  paved,  but  the  pavements  were  of  large  irregular 
stones,  and  unevenly  laid.  Few  houses  were  new,  and,  ex- 
cepting St.  John's  Church,  the  public  edifices  were  mean. 
All  these  have  been  swept  away  by  the  recent  conflagration, 
a  waste  of  property  indefensible  on  any  military  principles. 
The  buildings  might  have  furnished  winter-quarters  for 
our  troops ;  but  in  that  climate  they  were  not  necessary 
for  this  purpose,  perhaps  not  desirable,  or,  if  required, 
could  be  easily  replaced  by  temporary  habitations  con- 
structed of  lumber  imported  from  the  North  by  sea.  But 
the  rebel  chiefs  had  thrown  themselves  into  heroic  atti- 
tudes; and  while  playing  the  part  of  incendiaries,  they 
fancied  their  action  to  be  as  sublime  as  that  of  the  Russians 
at  Moscow.  With  such  a  precedent  of  vandalism,  no  rav- 
ages of  our  own  troops  can  hereafter  be  complained  of. 

The  prevailing  exodus,  leaving  less  than  a  dozen  white 
men  behind,  testifies  the  political  feelings  of  the  people. 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          33 

Only  two  votes  were  thrown  against  the  ordinance  of  se- 
cession. Whatever  of  Union  sentiment  existed  there  had 
been  swept  away  by  such  demagogues  as  Mallory,  Gary, 
Magruder,  Shiels,  and  Hope.  Hastily  as  they  left,  they 
removed  in  most  cases  all  their  furniture,  leaving  only  the 
old  Virginia  sideboard,  too  heavy  to  be  taken  away.  In  a 
few  exceptional  cases,  from  the  absence  of  the  owner  or 
other  cause,  the  house  was  still  furnished ;  but  generally 
nothing  but  old  letters,  torn  books,  newspapers,  cast-off 
clothing,  strewed  the  floors.  Rarely  have  I  enjoyed  the 
hours  more  than  when  roaming  from  cellar  to  garret  in 
these  tenantless  houses.  A  deserted  dwelling  !  How  the 
imagination  is  fascinated  by  what  may  have  there  transpired 
of  human  joy  or  sorrow,  —  the  solitary  struggles  of  the  soul 
for  better  things,  the  dawn  and  fruition  of  love,  the  separa- 
tions and  reunions  of  families,  the  hearth-stone  consecrated 
by  affection  and  prayer,  the  bridal  throng,  the  birth  of  new 
lives,  the  farewells  to  the  world,  the  funeral  train ! 

But  more  interesting  and  instructive  were  the  features  of 
slave-life  which  here  opened  to  us.  The  negroes  who  re- 
mained, of  whom  there  may  have  been  three  hundred  of 
all  ages,  lived  in  small  wooden  shanties,  generally  in  the 
rear  of  the  master's  house,  rarely  having  more  than  one 
room  on  the  lower  floor,  and  that  containing  an  open  fire- 
place where  the  cooking  for  the  master's  family  was  done, 
tables,  chairs,  dishes,  and  the  miscellaneous  utensils  of 
household  life.  The  masters  had  taken  with  them,  gener- 
ally, their  waiting-maids  and  house-servants,  and  had 
desired  to  carry  all  their  slaves  with  them.  But  in  the 
hasty  preparations,  —  particularly  where  the  slaves  were 
living  away  from  their  master's  close,  or  had  a  family, — 
it  was  difficult  to  remove  them  against  their  will,  as  they 
could  skulk  for  a  few  hours  and  then  go  where  they 
pleased.  Some  voluntarily  left  their  slaves  behind,  not 

3 


34         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

having  the  means  to  provide  for  them,  or,  anticipating  a 
return  at  no  distant  day,  desired  them  to  stay  and  guard 
the  property.  The  slaves  who  remained  lived  upon  the 
little  pork  and  corn-meal  that  were  left  and  the  growing 
vegetables.  They  had  but  little  to  do.  The  women 
looked  after  their  meagre  household  concerns,  but  the 
men  were  generally  idle,  standing  in  groups,  or  sitting  in 
front  of  the  shanties  talking  with  the  women.  Some  be- 
gan to  serve  our  officers  as  soon  as  we  were  quartered 
in  the  town,  while  a  few  others  set  up  cake-stands  upon 
the  street. 

It  was  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  post  that  some 
breastworks  should  be  thrown  up;  and  a  line  was  planned 
extending  from  the  old  cemetery  northward  to  the  new 
one,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant.  Our  own  troops  were 
disinclined  to  the  labor,  their  time  being  nearly  expired, 
and  they  claiming  that  they  had  done  their  share  of  fatigue 
duty  both  at  the  fort  and  at  Newport  News.  A  member 
of  Brigadier-General  Peirce's  staff,  Major  R.  A.  Peirce  (an 
efficient  officer  and  a  humane  gentleman),  suggested  the 
employment  of  the  contrabands  and  the  furnishing  of  them 
with  rations,  —  an  expedient  best  for  them  and  agreeable 
to  us.  He  at  once  dictated  a  telegram  to  General  Butler  in 
these  words :  "  Shall  we  put  the  contrabands  to  work  on 
the  intrenchments,  and  will  you  furnish  them  with  rations?  " 
An  affirmative  answer  was  promptly  received  on  Monday 
morning,  July  8,  and  that  was  the  first  day  in  the  course 
of  the  war  in  which  the  negro  was  employed  upon  the 
military  works  of  our  army.  It  therefore  marks  a  distinct 
epoch  in  its  progress,  and  in  its  relations  to  the  colored 
population. 

The  writer  — and  henceforth  his  narrative  must  indulge 
in  the  frequent  use  of  the  first  person— was  specially 
detailed  from  his  post  as  private  in  Company  L  of  the 


THE  CONTRABANDS  AT  FORTRESS  MONROE.    35 

Third  Regiment  to  collect  the  contrabands,  record  their 
names,  ages,  and  the  names  of  their  masters,  provide  their 
tools,  superintend  their  labor,  and  procure  their  rations. 
My  comrades  smiled,  as  I  undertook  the  novel  duty,  en- 
joying the  spectacle  of  a  Massachusetts  Republican  con- 
verted into  a  Virginia  slave-master.  To  me  it  seemed 
rather  an  opportunity  to  lead  them  from  the  house  of 
bondage  never  to  return.  For  whatever  may  be  the  gen- 
eral duty  to  this  race,  to  all  such  as  we  have  in  any  way 
employed  to  aid  our  armies  our  national  faith  and  our  per- 
sonal honor  are  pledged;  the  code  of  a  gentleman,  to 
say  nothing  of  a  higher  law  of  rectitude,  necessitates  pro- 
tection to  this  extent.  Abandoning  one  of  these  faithful 
allies,  —  who,  if  delivered  up,  would  be  reduced  to  severer 
servitude  because  of  the  education  he  had  received  and 
the  services  he  had  performed,  probably  to  be  transported 
to  the  remotest  slave  region  as  now  too  dangerous  to  re- 
main near  its  borders,  —  we  should  be  accursed  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  I  felt  assured  that  from  that  hour, 
whatsoever  the  fortunes  of  the  war,  every  one  of  those  en- 
rolled defenders  of  the  Union  had  vindicated  beyond  all 
future  question —  for  himself,  his  wife,  and  their  issue —  a 
title  to  American  citizenship,  and  become  heir  to  all  the 
immunities  of  Magna  Charta,  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, and  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

Passing  through  the  principal  streets,  I  told  the  contra- 
bands that  when  they  heard  the  court-house  bell,  which 
would  ring  soon,  they  must  go  to  the  court-house  yard, 
where  a  communication  would  be  made  to  them.  In  the 
mean  time  I  secured  the  valuable  services  of  some  fellow- 
privates,  —  one  for  a  quartermaster,  two  others  to  aid  in 
superintending  at  the  trenches,  —  and  the  orderly-sergeant 
of  my  own  company,1  whose  expertness  in  the  drill  was 
1  Samuel  C.  Hart,  of  New  Bedford. 


.36         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

equalled  only  by  his  general  good  sense  and  business  ca- 
pacity. Upon  the  ringing  of  the  bell,  about  forty  contra- 
bands came  to  the  yard.  A  second  exploration  added  to 
the  number  some  twenty  or  more,  who  had  not  heard  the 
original  summons.  They  then  came  into  the  building, 
where  they  were  called  to  order  and  addressed.  I  had 
argued  to  judges  and  juries,  but  I  had  never  spoken  to 
such  auditors  before  in  a  court-room.  I  told  them  that  the 
colored  men  had  been  employed  on  the  breastworks  of  the 
rebels,  and  we  needed  their  aid;  that  they  would  be  re- 
quired to  do  only  such  labor  as  we  ourselves  had  done  ;  that 
they  should  be  treated  kindly,  and  no  one  should  be 
obliged  to  work  beyond  his  capacity,  or  if  unwell ;  and 
that  they  should  be  furnished  in  a  day  or  two  with  full 
soldiers'  rations.  I  told  them  that  their  masters  had  said 
they  were  an  indolent  people ;  that  I  did  not  believe  the 
charge ;  that  I  was  going  home  to  Massachusetts  soon,  and 
should  be  glad  to  report  that  they  were  as  industrious  as 
the  whites. 

They  generally  showed  no  displeasure,  some  even  say- 
ing, that,  not  having  done  much  for  some  time,  it  was  the 
best  thing  for  them  to  be  now  employed.  Four  or  five 
men  over  fifty  years  old  said  that  they  suffered  from 
rheumatism,  and  could  not  work  without  injury.  Being 
confirmed  by  the  bystanders,  they  were  dismissed.  Other 
old  men  said  they  would  do  what  they  could,  and  they 
were  assured  that  no  more  would  be  required  of  them. 
Two  of  them,  provided  with  a  bucket  and  dipper,  were  de- 
tailed to  carry  water  all  the  time  along  the  line  of  laborers. 
Two  young  men  fretted  a  little,  and  claimed  to  be  disabled 
in  some  way.  They  were  told  to  resume  their  seats,  and  try 
first  and  see  what  they  could  do,— to  the  evident  amusement 
of  the  rest,  who  knew  them  to  be  indolent  and  disposed  to 
shirk.  A  few  showed  some  sulkiness,  but  it  all  passed 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS    MONROE.          37 

away  after  the  first  day,  when  they  found  that  they  were  to 
be  used  kindly.  One  well-dressed  young  man,  a  carpenter, 
feeling  a  little  better  than  his  associates,  did  not  wear  a 
pleasant  face  at  first.  Finding  out  his  trade,  we  set  him  to 
sawing  the  posts  for  the  intrenchments,  and  he  was  entirely 
reconciled.  Free-colored  men  were  not  required  to  work ; 
but  one  volunteered,  wishing,  as  he  said,  to  do  his  part. 
The  contrabands  complained  that  the  free-colored  men 
ought  to  be  required  to  work  on  the  intrenchments  as  well 
as  they.  I  thought  so  too,  but  followed  my  orders.  A 
few  expressed  some  concern  lest  their  masters  should  pun- 
ish them  for  serving  us,  if  they  ever  returned.  One  in- 
quired suspiciously  why  we  took  the  name  of  his  master; 
my  reply  was,  that  it  was  taken  in  order  to  identify  them,  — 
an  explanation  with  which  he  was  more  satisfied  than  I 
was  myself.  Several  were  without  shoes,  and  said  that 
they  could  not  drive  the  shovel  into  the  earth ;  they  were 
told  to  use  the  picks.  The  rest  of  the  forenoon  being 
occupied  in  registering  their  names  and  ages,  and  the 
names  of  their  masters,  they  were  dismissed  to  come  to- 
gether on  the  ringing  of  the  bell,  at  two  P.  M. 

It  had  been  expressly  understood  that  I  was  to  have  the 
exclusive  control  and  supervision  of  the  negroes,  directing 
their  hours  of  labor  and  their  rests,  without  interference 
from  any  one.  The  work  itself  was  to  be  planned  and 
superintended  by  the  officers  of  the  Third  and  Fourth 
regiments.  This  exclusive  control  of  the  men  was  neces- 
sarily confided  to  one,  as  different  lieutenants  detailed  each 
day  could  not  feel  a  responsibility  for  their  welfare.  One 
or  two  of  these,  when  rests  were  allowed  the  negroes,  were 
somewhat  disgusted,  saying  that  negroes  could  dig  all  the 
time  as  well  as  not.  I  had  had  some  years  before  an  ex- 
perience of  my  own  with  the  use  of  the  shovel  under  a 
warm  sun,  and  knew  better,  and  I  Dished  I  could  superin- 


38         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

tend  a  corps  of  lieutenants  and  apply  their  own  theory  to 
themselves. 

At  two  P.  M.  the  contrabands  came  together,  answered 
to  their  names,  and,  each  taking  a  shovel,  a  spade,  or  a 
pick,  began  to  work  upon  the  breastworks  farthest  from 
the  village  and  close  to  the  new  cemetery.  The  afternoon 
was  very  warm,  the  warmest  we  had  in  Hampton.  Some, 
used  only  to  household  or  other  light  work,  wilted  under 
the  heat,  and  they  were  told  to  go  into  the  cemetery  and 
lie  down.  I  remember  distinctly  a  corpulent  colored  man, 
down  whose  cheeks  the  perspiration  rolled,  and  who  said  he 
felt  badly.  He  also  was  told  to  go  away  and  rest  until  he 
was  better;  he  soon  came  back  relieved,  and  there  was 
no  more  faithful  laborer  among  them  all  during  the  rest  of 
the  time.  Twice  or  three  times  in  the  afternoon  an  inter- 
mission of  fifteen  minutes  was  allowed  to  all.  Thus  they 
worked  until  six  in  the  evening,  when  they  were  dismissed 
for  the  day.  They  deposited  their  tools  in  the  court-house, 
where  each  one  of  his  own  accord  carefully  put  his  pick  or 
shovel  where  he  could  find  it  again,  — sometimes  behind  a 
door,  and  sometimes  in  a  sly  corner  or  under  a  seat,  —  pre- 
ferring to  keep  his  own  tool.  They  were  then  informed 
that  they  must  come  together  on  the  ringing  of  the  bell 
the  next  morning  at  four  o'clock.  They  thought  that  too 
early,  but  they  were  assured  that  the  system  best  for  their 
health  would  be  adopted,  and  they  would  afterwards  be 
consulted  about  changing  it. 

The  next  morning  we  did  not  rise  quite  so  early  as  four, 
and  the  bell  was  not  rung  till  some  minutes  later.  The 
contrabands  were  prompt;  their  names  had  been  called, 
and  they  had  marched  to  the  trenches,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
distant,  and  were  fairly  at  work  by  half-past  four  or  a 
quarter  before  five.  They  did  excellent  service  during  the 
morning  hours,  and  at  seven  were  dismissed  till  eight.  The 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.         39 

roll  was  then  called  again,  absences,  if  any,  noted,  and  by 
half-past  eight  they  were  at  their  post.  They  continued 
at  the  trenches  till  eleven,  being  allowed  rests,  and  were 
then  dismissed  until  three  P.  M.,  being  relieved  four  hours 
in  the  middle  of  the  day,  when,  the  bell  being  rung  and 
the  roll  called,  they  resumed  their  work  and  continued  till 
six,  when  they  were  dismissed  for  the  day.  Such  were 
the  hours  and  usual  course  of  their  labor.  Their  number 
was  increased  some  half-dozen  by  fugitives  from  the  back- 
country,  who  came  in  and  asked  to  be  allowed  to  serve  on 
the  intrenchments. 

The  contrabands  worked  well,  and  in  no  instance  was  it 
found  necessary  for  the  superintendents  to  urge  them. 
There  was  a  public  opinion  among  them  against  idleness, 
which  answered  for  discipline.  Some  days  they  worked 
with  our  soldiers,  and  it  was  found  that  they  did  more 
work,  and  did  the  nicer  parts  —  the  facings  and  dressings  — 
better.  Colonels  Packard  and  Wardrop,  under  whose  di- 
rection the  breastworks  were  constructed,  and  General 
Butler,  who  visited  them,  expressed  satisfaction  at  the 
work  which  the  contrabands  had  done.  On  the  I4th  of 
July,  Mr.  Russell,  of  the  London  "  Times,"  and  Dr.  Bel- 
lows, of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  came  to  Hampton  and 
manifested  much  interest  at  the  success  of  the  experiment. 
The  result  was,  indeed,  pleasing.  A  subaltern  officer,  to 
whom  I  had  insisted  that  the  contrabands  should  be 
treated  with  kindness,  had  sneered  at  the  idea  of  applying 
philanthropic  notions  in  time  of  war.  It  was  found  then, 
as  always,  that  decent  persons  will  accomplish  more  when 
treated  kindly,  at  least  like  human  beings.  The  same 
principle,  if  we  will  but  credit  our  own  experience  and 
Mr.  Rarey  too,  may  with  advantage  be  extended  to  our 
relations  with  the  beasts  that  serve  us. 

Three  days  after  the  contrabands  began  their  work,  five 


40         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

days'  rations  were  served  to  them,  —  a  soldier's  ration  for 
each  laborer,  and  half  a  ration  for  each  dependent.  The 
allowance  was  liberal,  — as  a  soldier's  ration,  if  properly 
cooked,  is  more  than  he  generally  needs,  and  the  depend- 
ent for  whom  a  half-ration  was  received  might  be  a  wife 
or  a  half-grown  child.  It  consisted  of  salt  beef  or  pork, 
hard  bread,  beans,  rice,  coffee,  sugar,  soap,  and  candles ; 
and  where  the  family  was  large  it  made  a  considerable  pile. 
The  recipients  went  home  appearing  perfectly  satisfied, 
and  feeling  assured  that  our  promises  to  them  would  be 
performed.  On  Sunday,  fresh  meat  was  served  to  them 
in  the  same  manner  as  to  the  troops. 

There  was  one  striking  feature  in  the  contrabands  which 
must  not  be  omitted.  I  did  not  hear  a  profane  or  vulgar 
word  spoken  by  them  during  my  superintendence,  —  a 
remark  which  it  will  be  difficult  to  make  of  any  sixty-four 
white  men  taken  together  anywhere  in  our  army.  Indeed, 
the  greatest  discomfort  of  a  soldier  who  desires  to  remain 
a  gentleman  in  the  camp  is  the  perpetual  reiteration  of 
language  which  no  decent  lips  would  utter  in  a  sister's 
presence.  But  the  negroes,  so  dogmatically  pronounced 
unfit  for  freedom,  were  in  this  respect  models  for  those 
who  make  high  boasts  of  civility  of  manners  and  Christian 
culture.  Out  of  the  sixty-four  who  worked  for  us,  all  but 
half-a-dozen  were  members  of  the  church,  generally  the 
Baptist.  Although  without  a  pastor,  they  held  religious 
meetings  on  the  Sundays  we  passed  in  Hampton,  which 
were  attended  by  about  sixty  colored  persons  and  three 
hundred  soldiers.  The  devotions  were  decorously  con- 
ducted, bating  some  loud  shouting  by  one  or  two  excitable 
brethren,  which  the  better  sense  of  the  rest  could  not  sup- 
press. Their  prayers  and  exhortations  were  fervent,  and 
marked  by  a  simplicity  which  is  not  infrequently  the  rich- 
est eloquence.  The  soldiers  behaved  with  entire  pro- 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          41 

priety;  and  two  exhorted  them  with  pious  unction,  as 
children  of  one  Father,  ransomed  by  the  same  Redeemer. 

To  this  general  propriety  of  conduct  among  the  contra- 
bands intrusted  to  me  there  was  only  one  exception,  and 
that  was  in  the  case  of  Joe ;  his  surname  I  have  for- 
gotten. He  was  of  a  vagrant  disposition,  and  an  inveterate 
shirk.  He  had  a  plausible  speech  and  a  distorted  imagina- 
tion, and  might  be  called  a  demagogue  among  darkies.  He 
bore  an  ill  physiognomy,  —  that  of  one  "  fit  for  treasons, 
stratagems,  and  spoils."  He  was  disliked  by  the  other 
contrabands,  and  had  been  refused  admission  to  their 
church,  which  he  wished  to  join  in  order  to  get  up  a  char- 
acter. Last,  but  not  least,  among  his  sins,  he  wfis  accus- 
tomed to  beat  his  wife,  of  which  she  accused  him  in  my 
presence ;  whereupon  he  justified  himself  on  the  brazen 
assumption  that  all  husbands  did  the  same !  There  was 
no  good  reason  to  believe  that  he  had  already  been  tam- 
pered with  by  rebels ;  but  his  price  could  not  be  more 
than  five  dollars.  He  would  be  a  disturbing  element 
among  the  laborers  on  the  breastworks,  and  he  was  a  dan- 
gerous person  to  be  so  near  the  lines ;  we  therefore  sent 
him  to  the  fort.  The  last  I  heard  of  him  he  was  at  the 
Rip  Raps,  bemoaning  his  isolation,  and  the  butt  of  our 
soldiers  there,  who  charged  him  with  being  a  "  secesh," 
and  confounded  him  by  gravely  asserting  that  they  were 
such  themselves,  and  had  seen  him  with  the  "  secesh  "  at 
Yorktown.  This  was  the  single  goat  among  the  sheep. 

On  Monday  evening,  July  15,  when  the  contrabands  de- 
posited their  tools  in  the  court-house,  I  requested  them  to 
stop  a  moment  in  the  yard.  I  made  each  a  present  of 
some  tobacco,  which  all  the  men  and  most  of  the  women 
use.  As  they  gathered  in  a  circle  round  me,  head  peer- 
ing over  head,  I  spoke  to  them  briefly,  thanking  them 
for  their  cordial  work  and  complimenting  their  behavior, 


42          THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS    MONROE. 

remarking  that  I  had  heard  no  profane  or  vulgar  word 
from  them,  in  which  they  were  an  example  to  us, — 
adding  that  it  was  the  last  time  I  should  meet  them,  as 
we  were  to  march  homeward  in  the  morning,  and  that  I 
should  bear  to  my  people  a  good  report  of  their  industry 
and  morals. 

There  was  another  word  that  I  could  not  leave  without 
speaking.  Never  before  in  our  history  had  a  Northern 
man,  believing  in  the  divine  right  of  all  men  to  their 
liberty,  had  an  opportunity  to  address  an  audience  of 
sixty- four  slaves  and  say  what  the  spirit  moved  him  to 
utter,  —  and  I  should  have  been  false  to  all  that  is  true 
and  sacr|d  if  I  had  let  it  pass.  I  said  to  them  that  there 
was  one  more  word  for  me  to  add,  and  that  was,  that  every 
one  of  them  was  as  much  entitled  to  his  freedom  as  I  was 
to  mine,  and  I  hoped  they  would  all  now  secure  it.1 
"Believe  you,  boss,"  was  the  general  response;  and  each 
one  with  his  rough  gravelly  hand  grasped  mine,  and  with 
tearful  eyes  and  broken  utterances  said,  "  God  bless  you  !  " 
"  May  we  meet  in  Heaven !  "  "  My  name  is  Jack  Allen, 
don't  forget  me  !  "  "  Remember  me,  Kent  Anderson  !  " 
and  so  on.  No,  —  I  may  forget  the  playfellows  of  my 
childhood,  my  college  classmates,  my  professional  asso- 
ciates, my  comrades  in  arms,  but  I  will  remember  you  and 
your  benedictions  until  I  cease  to  breathe !  Farewell, 
honest  hearts,  longing  to  be  free !  and  may  the  kind 
Providence  which  forgets  not  the  sparrow  shelter  and 
protect  you ! 

During  our  encampment  at  Hampton,  I  occupied  much 
of  my  leisure  time  in  conversations  with  the  contrabands, 
both  at  their  work  and  in  their  shanties, —  endeavoring 

1  A  correspondent  of  the  "  Antislavery  Standard"  (New  York),  Sep- 
tember 7,  1861,  wrote  of  this  address  :  "It  was  the  first  antislavery  address 
delivered  in  a  slave  State  by  a  white  man  to  slaves." 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          43 

to  collect  their  currents  of  thought  and  feeling.  It 
remains  for  me  to  give  the  results,  so  far  as  any  could  be 
arrived  at. 

There  were  more  negroes  of  unmixed  African  blood  than 
we  expected  to  find.  But  many  were  entirely  bleached. 
One  man,  working  on  the  breastworks,  owned  by  his 
cousin,  whose  name  he  bore,  was  no  darker  than  white 
laborers  exposed  by  their  occupation  to  the  sun,  and 
could  not  be  distinguished  as  of  negro  descent.  Opposite 
our  quarters  was  a  young  slave-woman,  who  had  been 
three  times  a  mother  without  ever  having  been  a  wife. 
You  could  not  discern  in  her  three  daughters,  either  in 
color,  feature,  or  texture  of  hair,  the  slightest  trace  of 
African  lineage.  They  were  as  light-faced  and  fair-haired 
as  the  Saxon  slaves  whom  the  Roman  Pontiff,  Gregory  the 
Great,  met  in  the  markets  of  Rome.  If  they  were  to  be 
brought  North  and  their  pedigree  concealed,  they  could 
readily  mingle  with  our  population  and  marry  white 
men,  who  would  never  suspect  that  they  were  not  pure 
Caucasians. 

From  the  best  knowledge  I  could  obtain,  the  negroes  in 
Hampton  had  rarely  been  severely  whipped.  A  locust- 
tree  in  front  of  the  jail  had  been  used  for  a  whipping-post, 
and  they  were  very  desirous  that  it  should  be  cut  down. 
It  was  used,  however,  only  for  what  are  known  there  as 
flagrant  offences,  like  running  away.  Their  masters  when 
in  ill-temper,  had  used  rough  language  and  inflicted  chance 
blows ;  but  no  one  ever  told  me  that  he  had  suffered  from 
systematic  cruelty  or  been  severely  whipped,  except  Joe, 
whose  character  I  have  given.  Indeed,  many  of  them 
bore  testimony  to  the  great  kindness  of  their  masters  and 
mistresses. 

Separations  of  families  had  been  frequent.  Of  this  I 
obtained  definite  knowledge.  When  I  was  registering  the 


44         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

number  of  dependants,  preparatory  to  the  requisition  for 
rations,  the  answer  occasionally  was,  "  Yes,  I  have  a  wife, 
but  she  is  not  here."  "  Where  is  she?  "  "  She  was  sold 
off  two  years  ago,  and  I  have  not  heard  of  her  since." 
The  husband  of  the  woman  who  took  care  of  the  quar- 
ters of  General  Peirce  had  been  sold  away  from  her 
some  years  before.  Such  separations  are  regarded  as 
death,  and  the  slaves  re-marry.  In  some  cases  the  bereft 
one  —  so  an  intelligent  negro  assured  me  —  pines  under  his 
bereavement  and  loses  his  value ;  but  so  elastic  is  human 
nature  that  this  did  not  appear  to  be  generally  the  case. 
The  same  answer  was  given  about  children,  —  that  they 
had  been  sold  away.  This,  in  a  slave-breeding  country, 
is  done  when  they  are  about  eight  years  old.  Can  that 
be  a  mild  system  of  servitude  which  permits  such  enforced 
separations?  Providence  may,  indeed,  sunder  forever 
those  dearest  to  each  other,  and  the  stricken  soul  accepts 
the  blow  as  the  righteous  discipline  of  a  higher  power; 
but  when  the  bereavement  is  the  arbitrary  dictate  of 
human  will,  there  are  no  such  consolations  to  sanctify 
grief  and  assuage  agony 

There  is  a  universal  desire  among  the  slaves  to  be  free. 
Upon  this  point  my  inquiries  were  particular,  and  always 
with  the  same  result.  When  we  said  to  them,  "  You  don't 
want  to  be  free ;  your  masters  say  you  don't,"  —  they 
manifested  much  indignation,  answering,  "  We  do  want 
to  be  free,  —  we  want  to  be  for  ourselves."  We  inquired 
further,  "  Do  the  house  slaves  who  wear  their  master's 
clothes  want  to  be  free?  "  "  We  never  heard  of  one  who 
did  not,"  was  the  instant  reply.  There  might  be,  they 
said,  some  half-crazy  one  who  did  not  care  to  be  free,  but 
they  had  never  seen  one.  Even  old  men  and  women, 
with  crooked  backs,  who  could  hardly  walk  or  see,  shared 
the  same  feeling.  An  intelligent  secessionist,  Lowry  by 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          45 

name,  who  was  examined  at  headquarters,  admitted  that 
a  majority  of  the  slaves  wanted  to  be  free.  The  more  in- 
telligent the  slave  and  the  better  he  had  been  used,  the 
stronger  this  desire  seemed  to  be.  I  particularly  remem- 
ber one  such,  the  most  intelligent  one  in  Hampton,  known 
as  "  an  influential  darky "  ("  darky "  being  the  familiar 
term  applied  by  the  contrabands  to  themselves).  He 
could  read,  was  an  exhorter  in  the  church,  and  officiated 
in  the  absence  of  the  minister.  He  would  have  made  a 
competent  juryman.  His  mistress,  he  said,  had  been  kind 
to  him,  and  had  never  spoken  so  harshly  to  him  as  a 
captain's  orderly  in  the  Naval  Brigade  had  done,  who  as- 
sumed one  day  to  give  him  orders.  She  had  let  him 
work  where  he  pleased,  and  he  was  to  bring  her  a  fixed 
sum,  and  appropriate  the  surplus  to  his  own  use.  She 
pleaded  with  him  to  go  away  with  her  from  Hampton  at 
the  time  of  the  exodus,  but  she  would  not  force  him  to 
leave  his  family.  Still,  he  hated  to  be  a  slave,  and  he 
talked  like  a  philosopher  about  his  rights.  No  captive  in 
the  galleys  of  Algiers,  not  Lafayette  in  an  Austrian  dun- 
geon, ever  pined  more  for  free  air.  He  had  saved  eigh- 
teen hundred  dollars  of  his  surplus  earnings  in  attending 
on  visitors  at  Old  Point,  and  had  spent  it  all  in  litigation 
to  secure  the  freedom  of  his  wife  and  children,  belonging 
to  another  master  whose  will  had  emancipated  them,  but 
was  contested  on  the  ground  of  the  insanity  of  the  testator. 
He  had  won  a  verdict;  but  his  lawyers  told  him  they 
could  not  obtain  a  judgment  upon  it,  as  the  judge  was 
unfavorable  to  freedom. 

The  most  frequent  question  asked  of  one  who  has  had 
any  means  of  communication  with  the  contrabands  during 
the  war  is  in  relation  to  their  knowledge  of  .its  cause  and 
purposes,  and  their  interest  in  it.  One  thing  was  evident, 
—  indeed,  you  could  not  talk  with  a  slave  who  did  not 


46         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

without  prompting  give  the  same  testimony,  —  that  their 
masters  had  been  most  industrious  in  their  attempts  to 
persuade  them  that  the  Yankees  were  coming  down  there 
only  to  get  the  land ;  that  they  would  kill  the  negroes  and 
dress  the  ground  with  them,  or  carry  them  off  to  Cuba  or 
Hayti  and  sell  them.  An  intelligent  man  who  had  be- 
longed to  Colonel  Joseph  Segar  —  almost  the  only  Union 
man  at  heart  in  that  region,  and  who  for  that  reason,  being 
in  Washington  at  the  time  the  war  began,  had  not  dared 
to  return  to  Hampton  —  served  the  staff  of  General  Peirce. 
He  bore  the  highest  testimony  to  the  kindness  of  his 
master,  who,  he  said,  told  him  to  remain ;  that  the  Yankees 
were  the  friends  of  his  people,  and  would  use  them  well. 
"But,"  said  David, —for  that  was  his  name,  —  "I  never 
heard  of  any  other  master  who  talked  that  way ;  but  they 
all  told  the  worst  stories  about  the  Yankees,  and  the  mis- 
tresses were  more  furious  even  than  the  masters."  David, 
I  may  add,  spite  of  his  good  master,  longed  to  be  free. 

The  masters,  in  their  desperation,  had  within  a  few 
months  resorted  to  another  device  to  secure  the  loyalty  of 
their  slaves.  The  colored  Baptist  minister  had  been  some- 
thing of  a  pet  among  the  whites,  and  had  obtained  sub- 
scriptions from  some  benevolent  citizens  to  secure  the 
freedom  of  a  handsome  daughter  of  his  who  was  exposed 
to  sale  on  an  auction  block,  where  her  beauty  inspired 
competition.  Some  leading  secessionists,  Lawyer  Hope 
for  one,  working  somewhat  upon  his  gratitude  and  some- 
what upon  his  vanity,  persuaded  him  to  offer  the  services 
of  himself  and  his  sons,  in  a  published  communication,  to 
the  cause  of  Virginia  and  the  Confederate  States.  The 
artifice  did  not  succeed.  The  minister  lost  his  hold  on  his 
congregation,  and  could  not  have  safely  remained  after  the 
whites  left.  He  felt  uneasy  about  his  betrayal,  and  tried  to 
restore  himself  to  favor  by  saying  that  he  meant  no  harm 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.         47 

to  his  people ;  but  his  protestations  were  in  vain.  His  was 
the  deserved  fate  of  those  in  all  ages,  who,  victims  of  folly 
or  bribes,  turn  their  backs  on  their  fellows. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  attempts,  the  negroes,  with 
rare  exceptions,  still  believed  that  the  Yankees  were  their 
friends.  They  had  learned  something  in  Presidential 
elections,  and  they  thought  their  masters  could  not  hate 
us  as  they  did  unless  we  were  friends  to  the  slave.  They 
believed  that  the  troubles  would  somehow  or  other  help 
them,  although  they  did  not  understand  all  that  was  going 
on.  They  may  be  pardoned  for  their  want  of  apprehension, 
when  some  of  our  public  men,  almost  venerable,  and  reput- 
ed to  be  very  wise  and  philosophical,  are  bewildered  and 
grope  blindly.  They  were  somewhat  perplexed  by  the 
contradictory  statements  of  our  soldiers,  —  some  of  whom, 
according  to  their  wishes,  said  the  contest  was  for  the 
slaves ;  and  others  that  it  did  not  concern  them  at  all,  and 
they  would  remain  as  before.  If  it  was  explained  to  them 
that  Lincoln  was  chosen  by  a  party  who  were  opposed  to 
extending  slavery,  but  who  were  also  opposed  to  interfer- 
ing with  it  in  Virginia ;  that  Virginia  and  the  South  had 
rebelled,  and  we  had  come  to  suppress  the  rebellion ;  and 
although  the  object  of  the  war  was  not  to  emancipate  them, 
that  might  be  its  result,  —  they  answered  that  they  under- 
stood the  statement  perfectly.  They  did  not  seem  inclined 
to  fight,  although  willing  to  work.  More  could  not  be  ex- 
pected of  them  while  nothing  is  promised  to  them.  What 
latent  inspirations  they  may  have  remains  to  be  seen. 
They  had  at  first  a  mysterious  dread  of  firearms,  but 
familiarity  is  rapidly  removing  that. 

The  religious  element  of  their  life  has  been  noticed. 
They  said  they  had  prayed  for  this  day,  and  God  had  sent 
Lincoln  in  answer  to  their  prayers.  We  used  to  overhear 
their  family  devotions,  somewhat  loud  according  to  their 


48         THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

manner,  in  which  they  prayed  earnestly  for  our  troops. 
They  built  their  hopes  of  freedom  on  Scriptural  examples, 

regarding  the  deliverance  of  Daniel  from  the  lions'  den, 

and  of  the  Three  Children  from  the  furnace,  as  symbolic 
of  their  coming  freedom.  One  said  to  me  that  masters, 
before  they  died,  by  their  wills  sometimes  freed  their 
slaves,  and  he  thought  that  a  type  that  they  should  all 
become  free. 

One  Saturday  evening,  one  of  them  asked  me  to  call 
and  see  him  at  his  home  the  next  morning.  I  did  so,  and 
he  handed  me  a  Bible  belonging  to  his  mistress,  who  had 
died  a  few  days  before,  and  whose  bier  I  had  helped  to  carry 
to  the  family  vault.  He  wanted  me  to  read  to  him  the 
eleventh  chapter  of  Daniel.  It  seemed,  that,  as  one  of  the 
means  of  keeping  them  quiet,  the  white  clergymen  during 
the  winter  and  spring  had  read  them  some  verses  from  it 
to  show  that  the  South  would  prevail,  enforcing  passages 
which  ascribed  great  dominion  to  "  the  king  of  the  South," 
and  suppressing  those  which  subsequently  give  the  supre- 
macy to  "  the  king  of  the  North."  A  colored  man  who 
could  read  had  found  the  latter  passages,  and  made  them 
known.  The  chapter  is  dark  with  mystery ;  and  my  audi- 
tor, quite  perplexed  as  I  read  on,  remarked,  "  The  Bible 
is  a  very  mysterious  book."  I  read  to  him  also  the  thirty- 
fourth  chapter  of  Jeremiah,  wherein  the  sad  prophet  of 
Israel  records  the  denunciations  by  Jehovah  of  sword, 
pestilence,  and  famine  against  the  Jews  for  not  proclaim- 
ing liberty  to  their  servants  and  handmaids.  He  had 
not  known  before  that  there  were  such  passages  in  the 
Bible. 

The  conversations  of  the  contrabands  on  their  title  to  be 
regarded  as  freemen  showed  reflection.  When  asked  if 
they  thought  themselves  fit  for  freedom,  and  if  the  darkies 
were  not  lazy,  their  answer  was,  "  Who  but  the  darkies 


THE  CONTRABANDS  AT  FORTRESS  MONROE.    49 

cleared  all  the  land  round  here?  Yes,  there  are  lazy 
darkies,  but  there  are  more  lazy  whites."  When  told  that 
the  free  blacks  had  not  succeeded,  they  answered  that  the 
free  blacks  have  not  had  a  fair  chance  under  the  laws; 
that  they  don't  dare  to  enforce  their  claims  against  white 
men  ;  that  a  free-colored  blacksmith  had  a  thousand  dollars 
due  to  him  from  white  men,  but  he  was  afraid  to  sue 
for  any  portion  of  it.  One  man,  when  asked  why  he 
ought  to  be  free,  replied,  "  I  feed  and  clothe  myself,  and 
pay  my  master  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  a  year; 
and  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  is  just  so  much 
taken  from  me,  which  ought  to  be  used  to  make  me  and 
my  children  comfortable."  Indeed,  broken  as  was  their 
speech  and  limited  as  was  their  knowledge,  they  reasoned 
abstractly  on  their  rights  as  well  as  white  men.  Locke  or 
Channing  might  have  fortified  the  argument  for  universal 
liberty  from  their  simple  talk.  So  true  is  it  that  the  best 
thoughts  which  the  human  intellect  has  produced  have 
come,  not  from  affluent  learning  or  ornate  speech,  but 
from  the  original  elements  of  our  nature,  common  to  all 
races  of  men  and  all  conditions  in  life;  and  genius,  the 
highest  and  most  cultured,  may  bend  with  profit  to  catch 
the  lowliest  of  human  utterances. 

There  was  a  very  general  desire  among  the  contrabands 
to  know  how  to  read.  A  few  had  learned ;  and  these,  in 
every  instance  where  we  inquired  as  to  their  teacher,  had 
been  taught  on  the  sly  in  their  childhood  by  their  white 
playmates.  Others  knew  their  letters,  but  could  not  "  put 
them  together,"  as  they  said.  I  remember  of  a  summer's 
afternoon  seeing  a  young  married  woman,  perhaps  twenty- 
five  years  old,  seated  on  a  doorstep  with  her  primer  before 
her,  trying  to  make  progress. 

In  natural  tact  and  the  faculty  of  getting  a  livelihood  the 
contrabands  are  inferior  to  the  Yankees,  but  quite  equal 

4 


50         THE   CONTRABANDS  AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

to  the  mass  of  the  Southern  population.  It  is  not  easy  to 
see  why  they  would  be  less  industrious  if  free  than  the 
whites,  particularly  as  they  would  have  the  encouragement 
of  wages.  There  would  be  transient  difficulties  at  the  out- 
set, but  no  more  than  a  bad  system  lasting  for  ages  might 
be  expected  to  leave  behind.  The  first  generation  might 
be  unfitted  for  the  active  duties  and  responsibilities  of  citi- 
zenship ;  but  this  difficulty,  under  generous  provisions  for 
education,  would  not  pass  to  the  next.  Even  now  they  are 
not  so  much  behind  the  masses  of  the  whites.  Of  the 
Virginians  who  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  at  Hampton,  not 
more  than  one  in  fifteen  could  write  his  name;  and  the 
rolls  captured  at  Hatteras  disclose  an  equally  deplorable 
ignorance.  The  contrabands  might  be  less  addicted  than 
the  now  dominant  race  to  bowie-knifes  and  duels;  think- 
less  of  the  value  of  bludgeons  as  forensic  arguments ;  be 
less  inhospitable  to  innocent  sojourners  from  Free  States ; 
and  have  far  inferior  skill  in  robbing  forts  and  arsenals, 
plundering  the  national  treasury,  and  betraying  the  country 
at  whose  crib  they  had  fattened :  but  mankind  would  for- 
give them  for  not  acquiring  these  accomplishments  of 
modern  treason.  As  a  race,  they  may  be  less  vigorous  and 
thrifty  than  the  Saxon ;  but  they  are  more  social,  docile,  and 
affectionate,  fulfilling  the  theory  which  Channing  held  in 
relation  to  them,  if  advanced  to  freedom  and  civilization. 

If  in  the  progress  of  the  war  they  should  be  called  to 
bear  arms,  there  need  be  no  reasonable  apprehension  that 
they  would  exhibit  the  ferocity  of  savage  races.  Unlike 
such,  they  have  been  subordinated  to  civilized  life.  They 
are  by  nature  a  religious  people.  They  have  received  an 
education  in  the  Christian  faith  from  devout  teachers  of 
their  own  and  of  the  dominant  race.  Some  have  been 
taught  (let  us  believe  it)  by  the  precepts  of  Christian 
masters,  and  some  by  the  children  of  those  masters,  re- 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          51 

peating  the  lessons  of  the  Sabbath-school.  The  slave- 
holders assure  us  that  all  their  slaves  have  been  well  treated. 
If  that  be  so,  they  have  no  wrongs  to  avenge.  Associated 
with  our  army,  they  would  conform  to  the  stronger  and 
more  disciplined  race.  Nor  is  this  view  disproved  by  servile 
insurrections.  In  those  cases,  the  insurgents  without  arms, 
without  allies,  without  discipline,  but  throwing  themselves 
against  society,  against  government,  against  everything, 
saw  no  other  escape  than  to  devastate  and  destroy  without 
mercy  in  order  to  get  a  foothold.  If  they  exterminated, 
it  was  because  extermination  was  threatened  against  them. 
In  the  Revolution,  in  the  army  at  Cambridge,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  close  of  the  war,  against  the  protests  of 
South  Carolina  by  the  voice  of  Edward  Rutledge,  but 
with  the  express  sanction  of  Washington,  —  ever  just, 
ever  grateful  for  patriotism,  whencesoever  it  came,  —  the 
negroes  fought  in  the  ranks  with  the  white  men ;  and  they 
never  dishonored  the  patriot  cause.  So  also  at  the  defence 
of  New  Orleans,  they  received  from  General  Jackson  a 
noble  tribute  to  their  fidelity  and  soldier-like  bearing. 
Weighing  the  question  historically  and  reflectively,  and 
anticipating  the  capture  of  Richmond  and  New  Orleans, 
there  need  be  more  serious  apprehension  of  the  conduct 
of  some  of  our  own  troops  recruited  in  large  cities  than 
of  a  regiment  of  contrabands  officered  and  disciplined  by 
white  men. 

But  as  events  travel  faster  than  laws  or  proclamations, 
already  in  this  war  with  rebellion  the  two  races  have 
served  together.  The  same  breastworks  have  been  built 
by  their  common  toil.  True  and  valiant,  they  stood  side  by 
side  in  the  din  of  cannonade,  and  they  shared  as  comrades 
in  the  victory  of  Hatteras.  History  will  not  fail  to  record 
that  on  the  28th  day  of  August,  1861,  when  the  rebel  forts 
were  bombarded  by  the  Federal  army  and  navy,  under 


52          THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE. 

the  command  of  Major-General  Butler  and  Commodore 
Stringham,  fourteen  negroes,  lately  Virginia  slaves,  now 
contraband  of  war,  faithfully  and  without  panic  worked 
the  after-gun  of  the  upper  deck  of  the  "  Minnesota,"  and 
hailed  with  a  victor's  pride  the  Stars  and  Stripes  as  they 
again  waved  on  the  soil  of  the  Carolinas. 


Mr.  Pierce's  article  on  the  contrabands  called  forth  expressions 
of  approval  from  several  well-known  gentlemen.  Mr.  Smalley, 
afterwards  distinguished  as  the  London  correspondent  of  the 
New  York  "  Tribune,"  wrote  :  — 

BOSTON,  October  23,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  You  will  permit  me  to  thank  you  for  your 
article  on  the  contrabands,  which  entitles  you  to  the  thanks  of 
every  man  who  hates  slavery  and  believes  the  system  may  and 
ought  to  be  destroyed  by  this  war.  It  is  easy  to  applaud  the 
picturesque  interest  of  its  narrative,  its  clearness  and  courage  of 
statement  and  comment ;  but  its  pathos  and  Christian  humanity 
are  beyond  all  praise.  In  justice  to  myself,  I  cannot  omit  to  tell 
you  how  much  I  have  been  impressed ;  and  I  beg  you  to  be- 
lieve me 

Sincerely  yours, 

GEORGE  W.  SMALLEY. 
E.  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 


A  citizen  of  New  Bedford,  later  holding  a  high  judicial  office, 
wrote :  — 

NEW  BEDFORD,  MASS.,  November  3,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  just  arisen  from  the  perusal  of  your 
article  on  "The  Contrabands  at  Fortress  Monroe,"  and  I  cannot 
resist  the  impulse  to  thank  you  most  cordially  for  it. 

In  my  judgment  you  have  by  this  rendered  a  far  greater  service 
to  our  country,  as  well  as  to  the  great  cause  of  human  progress 
and  civilization,  than  even  by  the  faithful  service  and  chivalrous 
example  of  your  military  term  at  Fort  Monroe.  It  is  a  valuable 


THE   CONTRABANDS   AT   FORTRESS   MONROE.          53 

contribution  to  the  great  question  of  the  hour,  and  I  wish  most 
heartily  that  its  general  distribution  in  some  popular  form  might  be 
provided  for.  In  these  days,  when  "  bayonets  think,"  our  victory 
will  lag  till  they  are  reinforced  by  ideas. 

Truly  your  friend, 

ROBERT  C.  PITMAN. 
EDWARD  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 


The  biographer  of  Theodore  Parker  testified  his  approval  as 
follows :  — 

MILTON,  October  18,  1861. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  thank  you  for  letting  me  have  an 
early  sight  of  your  article,  and  I  enjoyed  reading  it.  I  liked  what 
it  implied  as  well  as  what  it  expressed.  It  will  be  an  important 
document  by  and  by,  as  giving  the  world  the  most  authentic  ac- 
count of  the  first  contact  of  the  Army  of  Freedom  with  the 
Slave. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  WEISS. 


54  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


III. 


WHILE  on  a  journey  to  the  Western  States  in  May,  1853,  Mr. 
Pierce  made  at  Cincinnati  the  acquaintance  of  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
then  United  States  Senator,  by  a  letter  of  introduction  from 
Charles  Sumner.  This  meeting  led  to  an  intimate  friendship. 
Mr.  Pierce,  who  was  just  beginning  professional  life,  entered  Mr. 
Chase's  law  office  at  Cincinnati  in  October,  1853,  and  remained 
there  till  the  summer  of  1854  (Mr.  Chase  being,  however,  then  in 
Washington),  and  was  the  senator's  secretary  at  Washington  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1854-55.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Pierce  was  mustered 
out  of  military  service  in  July,  1861,  he  had  occasion  to  visit  the 
capital,  and  while  there  related  to  Mr.  Chase,  then  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  his  recent  experiences  with  negroes  at  Hampton,  Va.,  in 
which  the  secretary  expressed  great  interest.  This  incident,  in 
connection  with  the  personal  relation  above  referred  to,  prompted 
Mr.  Chase,  December  21,  1861,  to  send  to  Mr.  Pierce,  then  a 
lawyer  in  Boston,  a  letter  and  a  telegram  of  similar  purport,  the 
latter  being  as  follows  :  "  If  you  incline  to  visit  Beaufort  in  con- 
nection with  contrabands  and  cotton,  come  to  Washington  at  once." 
The  secretary  had  already  commissioned  agents  to  collect  the  cot- 
ton on  the  islands,  but  was  distrustful  as  to  their  sentiments  and 
conduct  towards  the  negroes. 

On  the  25th  Mr.  Pierce  conferred  with  Secretary  Chase  at  his 
department,  and  returning  home,  accepted  on  the  3Oth  the  mis- 
sion, which  was  then  supposed  to  be  the  temporary  one  of  investi- 
gation. He  left  New  York  City  for  Port  Royal,  January  13,  1862, 
and  arrived  at  New  York  on  his  return  February  13.  On  the 
evening  of  the  next  day  he  read  to  Mr.  Chase  at  the  secretary's 
house  in  Washington  his  report  dated  February  3,  which  he  had 
prepared  at  Port  Royal.  The  secretary  cordially  approved  its  tenor 
and  recommendations,  stating  at  the  same  time  his  regret  that 
he  had  no  public  fund  available  for  the  payment  of  teachers  and 


THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL.         55 

superintendents,  —  a  burden,  however,  which  voluntary  societies 
came  forward  at  once  to  assume.  The  report  was  at  once  pub- 
lished in  the  "  New  York  Tribune,"  and  copied  wholly  or  in  part 
by  other  journals.  It  drew  attention  as  the  first  comprehensive 
treatment  of  the  character  of  slaves  in  the  revolted  States,  and  as 
the  first  statement  of  a  plan  for  organizing  and  educating  them  as 
laborers  and  citizens. 

Early  in  the  Civil  War  there  was  a  craving  for  definite  informa- 
tion as  to  the  capacity  of  the  Southern  negroes  to  become  citizens, 
soldiers,  and  productive  laborers ;  and  curiosity  on  these  points 
drew  particular  attention  to  Mr.  Pierce's  testimony  concerning 
them.  There  was  a  general  apprehension  —  a  conviction  with  some, 
and  a  doubt  or  fear  with  others  —  that  the  slaves  would  not  as  free- 
men keep  up  the  culture  of  cotton,  an  industry  which  was  deemed 
essential  to  the  national  prosperity ;  and  this  state  of  the  public 
mind  was  a  formidable  obstruction  to  the  policy  of  emancipation. 
Even  a  radical  Antislavery  member  of  Congress  from  Massachu- 
setts said  to  Mr.  Pierce  at  Washington,  in  February,  1862,  "Do 
you  think  anything  can  be  done  with  these  people  ? "  In  view 
of  this  prevailing  scepticism,  Mr.  Pierce's  reports  emphasized  any 
hopeful  indications  of  industrial  capacity  which  he  discovered  in 
the  Southern  negroes ;  and  his  efforts  were  strenuously  directed 
to  the  raising  of  a  crop  of  cotton  in  the  season  of  1862,  even 
though  under  the  very  unfavorable  conditions  the  results  might  not 
be  considerable. 

It  should  be  observed  that  Mr.  Pierce's  official  reports  —  dated 
February  3  and  June  2,  1862 — preceded  by  several  months  Presi- 
dent Lincoln's  proclamations  of  emancipation.  They  appeared  at 
a  time  when  both  the  people  and  public  men  were  groping  on  the 
slavery  question,  and  there  was  as  yet  no  definite  policy  or  public 
opinion  as  to  the  fate  of  the  Southern  negroes.  Mr.  Pierce 
deemed  it  wise,  in  the  sensitive  state  of  the  public  mind,  to  avoid 
argument  on  the  vexed  question  of  their  status,  and  thought  it  the 
better  way  to  assume  their  freedom  as  already  established  by 
events.  The  two  documents  were  believed  at  the  time  to  have 
materially  advanced  the  question  in  the  direction  of  emancipation, 
particularly  by  showing  the  disposition  and  capacity  of  the  slaves 


56  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

to  work  as  free  laborers.  They  were  included  in  that  well-known 
collection  of  documents,  the  "Rebellion  Record"  (Companion 
volume)  pp.  302-323.  Earl  Russell  referred,  March  10,  1862,  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  to  the  first  report  as  "  an  interesting  account," 
and  quoted  from  it.  An  English  publication,  entitled  "  Once  a 
Week,"  March  29,  1862,  contained  a  paper  on  "  Mr.  Pierce's  Ten 
Thousand  Clients,"  which  reproduced  the  substance  of  his  first  re- 
port. Augustin  Cochin  referred  to  the  two  reports  in  his  "Results 
of  Emancipation"  (Boston  edition,  1863,  pp.  399),  and  Elise"e 
Reclus  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  them  in  his  article  entitled 
"  Les  Noirs  Ame'ricains  depuis  La  Guerre  "  in  the  "  Revue  des 
Deux  Mondes"  for  March  15,  1863  (pp.  388-394).  Later  his- 
torical references  to  the  Port  Royal  enterprise  will  be  found  in  the 
Count  of  Paris's  "  History  of  the  Civil  War  in  America  "  (Phila- 
delphia, 1876,  ii.  729-730)  ;  Wilson's  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave 
Power  in  America"  (Hi.  455-463);  Lossing's  "Civil  War  in 
America"  (ii.  126),  and  "  Memoir  and  Letters  of  Charles  Sum- 
ner"  (iv.  82). 

Mr.  Pierce's  two  reports  and  his  article  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  September,  1863,  have  been  combined  in  this  volume, 
with  the  omission  from  each  of  passages  relating  to  details  which 
are  not  now  of  importance.  The  article  referred  to  —  entitled 
"The  Freedmen  at  Port  Royal"  —  includes  also  notes  of  his  visit 
to  the  Sea  Islands  in  the  spring  of  1863.  He  did  not  again  visit 
them  till  1881.  Shortly  after,  he  gave  a  library  of  a  thousand 
volumes  to  the  people  of  the  islands,  which  together  with  the 
building  —  the  gift  of  Robert  K.  Darrah,  of  Boston  —  was  unfor- 
tunately destroyed  by  fire  in  1893. 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  57 


THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL. 

Two  questions  are  concerned  in  the  social  problem  of 
our  time.  One  is,  Will  the  people  of  African  descent 
work  for  a  living  ?  and  the  other  is,  Will  they  fight  for 
their  freedom  ?  An  affirmative  answer  to  these  must  be 
put  beyond  any  fair  dispute  before  they  will  receive  per- 
manent security  in  law  or  opinion.  Whatever  may  be  the 
theses  of  philosophers  or  the  instincts  of  just  men,  the  general 
sense  of  mankind  is  not  likely  to  accord  the  rights  of  com- 
plete citizenship  to  a  race  of  paupers,  or  to  hesitate  in  im- 
posing compulsory  labor  on  those  who  have  not  industry 
sufficient  to  support  themselves.  Nor,  in  the  present  de- 
velopment of  human  nature,  is  the  conscience  of  great 
communities  likely  to  be  so  pervasive  and  controlling  as  to 
restrain  them  from  disregarding  the  rights  of  those  whom 
it  is  perfectly  safe  to  injure,  because  they  have  not  the 
pluck  to  defend  themselves.  Sentiment  may  be  lavished 
upon  them  in  poetry  and  tears,  but  it  will  all  be  wasted. 
Like  every  unprivileged  class  before  them,  they  will  have 
their  full  recognition  as  citizens  and  men  when  they  have 
vindicated  their  title  to  be  an  estate  of  the  realm,  and  not 
before.  Let  us,  then,  take  the  world  as  we  find  it,  and  try 
this  people  accordingly.  It  is  not  pertinent  to  any  practical 
inquiry  of  our  time  to  predict  what  triumphs  in  art,  litera- 
ture, or  government  they  are  to  accomplish,  or  what 
romance  is  to  glow  upon  their  history.  No  Iliad  may  be 
written  of  them  and  their  woes  ;  no  Plutarch  may  gather 
the  lives  of  their  heroes  ;  no  Vandyck  may  delight  to  warm 


eg  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

his  canvas  with  their  forms.  How  many  or  how  few 
astronomers  like  Banneker,  chieftains  like  Toussaint,  ora- 
tors like  Douglass  they  may  have,  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
conjecture.  It  is  better  to  dismiss  these  fanciful  discus- 
sions. To  vindicate  their  title  to  a  fair  chance  in  the  world 
as  a  free  people,  it  is  sufficient  that  it  appear  to  reasonable 
minds  that  they  are  in  good  and  evil  very  much  like  the 
rest  of  mankind,  and  that  they  are  endowed  in  about  the 
same  degree  with  the  conservative  and  progressive  ele- 
ments of  character  common  to  ordinary  humanity. 

It  is  given  to  the  people  of  this  country  and  time,  could 
they  realize  it,  to  make  a  new  chapter  of  human  experi- 
ence. The  past  may  suggest,  but  it  can  do  little  either  in 
directing  or  deterring.  There  is  nothing  in  the  gloomy 
vaticinations  of  De  Tocqueville,  wise  and  benevolent  as  he 
is,  which  should  be  permitted  to  darken  our  future.  The 
mediaeval  antagonisms  of  races  —  when  Christianity  threw 
but  a  partial  light  over  mankind,  and  before  commerce  had 
unfolded  the  harmony  of  interests  among  people  of  diverse 
origin  or  condition  —  determine  no  laws  which  will  fetter 
the  richer  and  more  various  development  of  modern  life. 
Nor  do  the  results  of  emancipation  in  the  West  Indies, 
more  or  less  satisfactory  as  they  may  be,  afford  any  mea- 
sure of  the  progress  which  opens  before  our  enfranchised 
masses.  The  insular  and  contracted  life  of  the  colonies, 
cramped  also  as  they  were  by  debt  and  absenteeism,  has 
no  parallel  in  the  grand  currents  of  thought  and  activity 
ever  sweeping  through  the  continent  on  which  our  prob- 
lem is  to  be  solved. 

In  the  light  of  these  views,  the  attempt  will  be  made  to 
report  truthfully  upon  the  freedmen  at  Port  Royal.  A 
word,  however,  as  to  the  name.  Civilization,  in  its  career, 
may  often  be  traced  in  the  nomenclatures  of  successive 
periods.  These  people  were  first  called  "contrabands" 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  59 

at  Fortress  Monroe ;  but  at  Port  Royal,  where  they  were 
next  introduced  to  us  in  any  considerable  number,  they 
were  generally  referred  to  as  "  freedmen."  These  terms 
are  milestones  in  our  progress ;  and  they  are  yet  to  be  lost 
in  the  better  and  more  comprehensive  designation  of 
"  citizens,"  or,  when  discrimination  is  convenient,  "  citizens 
of  African  descent." 

The  enterprise  for  the  protection  and  development  of  the 
freedmen  at  Port  Royal  has  won  its  way  to  the  regard  of 
mankind.  The  best  minds  of  Europe,  as  well  as  the  best 
friends  of  the  United  States,  like  Cairnes  and  Gasparin, 
have  testified  much  interest  in  its  progress.  In  Parliament, 
Earl  Russell  noted  it  in  its  incipient  stage  as  a  reason  why 
England  should  not  intervene  in  American  affairs.  The 
"  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,"  in  a  recent  number,  character- 
izes the  colony  as  "  that  small  pacific  army,  far  more  im- 
portant in  the  history  of  civilization  than  all  the  military 
expeditions  despatched  from  time  to  time  since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  civil  war." 

No  little  historical  interest  covers  the  region  to  which 
this  account  belongs.  Explorations  of  the  coast  now 
known  as  that  of  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  in- 
volving the  rival  pretensions  of  Spain  and  France,  were 
made  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  They 
were  conducted  by  Ponce  de  Leon,  Vasquez,  Verrazzani, 
and  De  Soto,  in  search  of  the  fountain  of  perpetual  youth, 
or  to  extend  empire  by  right  of  discovery.  But  no  perma- 
nent settlement  by  way  of  colony  or  garrison  was  attempted 
until  1562. 

In  that  year,  —  the  same  in  which  he  drew  his  sword  for 
his  faith,  and  ten  years  before  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, in  which  he  fell  the  most  illustrious  victim,  — 
Admiral  Coligny,  the  great  Protestant  chief,  anxious  to 


60        THE  FREEDMEN  AT  RORT  ROYAL. 

found  beyond  the  seas  a  refuge  for  persecuted  Huguenots, 
fitted  out  the  expedition  of  Jean  Ribault,  which,  after  a 
voyage  of  over  three  months  across  the  ocean  and  north- 
ward along  the  coast,  cast  anchor  on  May  27  in  the  har- 
bor of  Port  Royal,  and  gave  it  the  name  which  it  retains 
to  this  day.  That  year  was  also  to  be  ever  memorable  for 
another  and  far  different  enterprise,  which  was  destined  to 
be  written  in  dark  and  perpetual  lines  on  human  history. 
Then  it  was  that  John  Hawkins  sailed  for  Africa  in  quest 
of  the  first  cargo  of  negroes  ever  brought  in  English  ships 
to  the  New  World.  The  expedition  of  Ribault  was  the 
first  visit  of  Europeans  to  Port  Royal  or  to  any  part  of 
South  Carolina;  and  the  garrison  left  by  him  was  the  first 
settlement  under  their  auspices  ever  made  on  this  conti- 
nent north  of  Mexico.  There  is  not  space  or  need  to  de- 
tail here  the  mutiny  and  suffering  of  this  military  colony, 
their  abandonment  of  the  post,  the  terrible  voyage  home- 
ward, or  the  perseverance  of  Coligny  in  his  original  pur- 
pose. Nor  is  it  within  the  compass  of  this  narrative  to 
recount  the  fortunes  of  the  second  garrison,  which  was 
founded  on  the  St.  John's ;  the  visit  of  John  Hawkins  in 
1565  with  timely  relief;  the  return  of  Ribault  from  France 
and  his  sad  fate  ;  the  ferocity  of  Menendez  against  all 
heretic  Frenchmen ;  and  the  avenging  chivalry  of  Dominic 
de  Gourgues.1  The  student  is  baffled  in  attempts  to  fix 
localities  for  the  deeds  and  explorations  of  this  period, 
even  with  the  help  of  the  several  accounts  and  the  draw- 
ings of  Le  Moyne;  and,  besides,  these  later  vicissitudes 
did  not  involve  any  permanent  occupation  as  far  north 
as  Port  Royal,  that  region  having  been  abandoned  by  the 

1  The  author's  original  manuscript  entered  at  some  length  on  these  events, 
but  he  was  obliged  to  curtail  the  narrative  for  the  reason  that  Francis  Park- 
man's  articles  on  "  The  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,"  then  being 
prepared  for  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  were  to  cover  the  same  ground. 


THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL.        6 1 

French,  and  being  then  visited  by  the  Spanish  only  for 
trade  or  adventure. 

Some  merchants  of  Barbadoes,  in  1663,  sent  William 
Hilton  and  other  commissioners  to  Florida,  then  including 
Port  Royal,  to  explore  the  country  with  reference  to  an 
emigration  thither.  Hilton's  "Narration,"  published  in 
London  the  year  after,  mentions  St.  Ellen's  as  one  of  the 
points  visited,  —  meaning  St.  Helena,  but  probably  includ- 
ing the  Sea  Islands  under  that  name.  The  natives  were 
found  to  speak  many  Spanish  words,  and  to  be  familiar 
enough  with  the  report  of  guns  not  to  be  alarmed  by  it. 
The  commissioners,  whose  explorations  were  evidently 
prompted  by  the  motives  of  gain,  close  a  somewhat  glow- 
ing description  of  the  country  by  saying,  "  And  we  could 
wish  that  all  they  that  want  a  happy  settlement  of  our 
English  nation  were  well  transported  thither." 

Hitherto  England  had  borne  no  part  in  exploring  this 
region.  But,  relieved  of  her  civil  wars  by  the  Restoration, 
she  began  to  seek  colonial  empire  on  the  southern  coast  of 
North  America.  In  1663,  Charles  II.  granted  a  charter  to 
Clarendon,  Monk,  Shaftesbury,  —  each  famous  in  the  con- 
flicts of  those  times,  — and  to  their  associates,  as  proprie- 
tors of  Carolina.  The  genius  of  John  Locke,  more  fitted 
for  philosophy  than  affairs,  devised  a  constitution  for  the 
colony,  —  an  idle  work,  as  it  proved.  In  1670,  the  first 
emigrants,  under  Governor  William  Sayle,  arrived  at  Port 
Royal,  with  the  purpose  to  remain  there;  but,  disturbed 
probably  with  apprehensions  of  Spanish  incursions  from 
Florida,  they  removed  to  the  banks  of  the  Ashley,  and, 
after  another  change  of  site,  founded  Charleston. 

In  1682,  a  colony  from  Scotland  under  Lord  Cardross 
was  founded  at  Port  Royal,  but  was  driven  away  four  years 
later  by  the  Spanish.  No  permanent  settlement  of  the 
Beaufort  district  appears  to  have  succeeded  until  1700. 


62  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

This  district  is  divided  into  four  parishes,  —  St.  Peter's,  St. 
Luke's,  St.  Helena,  and  Prince  William,  —  being  fifty- 
eight  miles  long  and  thirty-two  broad,  and  containing 
1,224,960  acres.  St.  Helena  parish  includes  the  islands 
of  St.  Helena,  Ladies,  Port  Royal,  Paris,  and  a  few  smaller 
islands,  which,  together  with  Hilton  Head,  make  the  dis- 
trict occupied  by  our  forces.  The  largest  and  most  popu- 
lous of  these  islands  is  St.  Helena,  being  fifteen  miles  long 
and  six  or  seven  broad,  containing  fifty  plantations  and 
three  thousand  negroes,  and  perhaps  more  since  the  evac- 
uation of  Edisto.  Port  Royal  is  two-thirds  or  three- 
quarters  the  size  of  St.  Helena,  Ladies  half  as  large,  and 
Hilton  Head  one-third  as  large.  Paris,  or  Parry,  has  five 
plantations;  and  Coosaw,  Morgan,  Cat,  Cane,  and  Barn- 
well  have  each  one  or  two.  Beaufort  is  the  largest  town 
in  the  district  of  that  name,  and  the  only  one  at.  Port 
Royal  in  our  possession.  Its  population,  black  and  white, 
in  time  of  peace  may  have  been  between  two  and  three 
thousand.  The  first  lots  were  granted  in  1717.  Its  Epis- 
copal church  was  built  in  1720.  Its  library  was  instituted 
in  1802,  had  increased  in  1825  to  six  or  eight  hundred  vol- 
umes, and  when  our  military  occupation  began  contained 
about  thirty-five  hundred. 

The  origin  of  the  name  Port  Royal,  given  to  a  harbor 
at  first  and  since  to  an  island,  has  already  been  noted. 
The  name  of  St.  Helena,  applied  to  a  sound,  a  parish,  and 
an  island,  originated  probably  with  the  Spaniards,  and 
was  given  by  them  in  tribute  to  Saint  Helena,  mother 
of  Constantine  the  Great,  whose  day  in  the  calendar  is 
August  1 8.  Broad  River  is  the  equivalent  of  La  Grande, 
which  was  given  by  Ribault.  Hilton  Head  may  have  been 
derived  from  Captain  Hilton,  who  came  from  Barbadoes. 
Coosaw  is  the  name  of  a  tribe  of  Indians.  Beaufort  is 
likely  to  have  been  so  called  for  Henry,  Duke  of  Beaufort, 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  63 

one  of  the  lord  proprietors  while  Carolina  was  a  province 
of  Great  Britain. 

The  Beaufort  district  is  not  invested  with  any  consider- 
able Revolutionary  romance.  In  1779,  the  British  forces 
holding  Savannah  sent  two  hundred  troops  with  a  howitzer 
and  two  field-pieces  to  Beaufort.  Four  companies  of 
militia  from  Charleston  with  two  field-pieces,  reinforced  by 
a  few  volunteers  from  Beaufort,  repulsed  and  drove  them 
off.  The  British  made  marauding  incursions  from  Charles- 
ton in  1782,  and  are  said  to  have  levied  a  military  contri- 
bution on  St.  Helena  and  Port  Royal  Islands. 

There  are  the  remains  of  Indian  mounds  and  ancient 
forts  on  the  islands.  One  of  these  last  can  be  traced  on 
Paris  Island,  and  is  claimed  by  some  antiquaries  to  be 
the  Charles  Fort  built  by  Ribault.  There  are  the  well- 
preserved  walls  of  one  upon  the  plantation  of  John  J. 
Smith  on  Port  Royal  Island,  a  few  miles  south  of  Beau- 
fort, now  called  Camp  Saxton,  and  recently  occupied  by 
Colonel  Higginson's  regiment.  It  is  built  of  cemented 
oyster-shells.  Common  remark  refers  to  it  as  a  Spanish 
fort,  but  it  is  likely  to  be  of  English  construction.  The 
site  of  Charles  Fort  is  claimed  for  Beaufort,  Lemon  Island, 
Paris  Island,  and  other  points. 

The  Sea  Islands  are  formed  by  the  intersection  of  the 
creeks  and  arms  of  the  sea.  They  have  a  uniform  level, 
are  without  any  stones,  and  present  a  rather  monotonous 
and  uninteresting  scenery,  spite  of  the  raptures  of  French 
explorers.  The  creeks  run  up  into  the  islands  at  numerous 
points,  affording  facilities  for  transportation  by  flats  and 
boats  to  the  buildings  which  are  usually  near  them.  The 
soil  is  of  a  light,  sandy  mould,  and  yields  in  the  best 
seasons  a  very  moderate  crop,  say  fifteen  bushels  of  corn 
and  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  of 
ginned  cotton  to  the  acre,  —  quite  different  from  the  plan- 


64  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

tations  in  Mississippi  and  Texas,  where  an  acre  produces 
five  or  six  hundred  pounds.  The  soil  is  not  rich  enough 
for  the  cultivated  grasses,  and  one  finds  but  little  turf. 
The  coarse  saline  grasses,  gathered  in  stacks,  furnish  the 
chief  material  for  dressing  the  land.  The  long-fibred  cotton 
peculiar  to  the  region  is  the  result  of  the  climate,  which  is 
affected  by  the  action  of  salt  water  upon  the  atmosphere 
by  means  of  the  creeks  which  permeate  the  land  in  all 
directions.  The  seed  of  this  cotton,  planted  on  the  upland, 
will  produce  in  a  few  years  the  cotton  of  coarser  texture ; 
and  the  seed  of  the  latter,  planted  on  the  islands,  will  in  a 
like  period  produce  the  finer  staple.  The  treasury  depart- 
ment secured  eleven  hundred  thousand  pounds  from  the 
islands  occupied  by  our  forces,  including  Edisto,  —  being 
the  crop,  mostly  unginned,  and  gathered  in  storehouses, 
when  our  military  occupation  began. 

The  characteristic  trees  are  the  live-oak,  its  wood  almost 
as  heavy  as  lignum-vitse,  the  trunk  not  high,  but  sometimes 
five  or  six  feet  in  diameter,  and  extending  its  crooked 
branches  far  over  the  land,  with  the  long,  pendulous,  fune- 
real moss  adhering  to  them ;  and  the  palmetto,  shooting 
up  its  long,  spongy  stem  thirty  or  forty  feet,  unrelieved  by 
vines  or  branches,  with  a  disproportionately  small  cap  of 
leaves  at  the  summit,  —  the  most  ungainly  of  trees,  albeit 
it  gives  a  name  and  coat-of-arms  to  the  State.  Besides 
these,  are  the  pine,  the  red  and  white  oak,  the  cedar,  the 
bay,  the  gum,  the  maple,  and  the  ash.  The  soil  is  luxuri- 
ant with  an  undergrowth  of  impenetrable  vines.  These 
interlacing  the  trees,  supported  also  by  shrubs,  of  which 
the  cassena  is  the  most  distinguished  variety,  and  faced 
with  ditches,  make  the  prevailing  fences  of  the  plantations. 
The  hedges  are  adorned  in  March  and  April  with  the  yel- 
low jessamine  (jelsemimim) ;  the  cross-vine  (bignonia) 
with  its  mass  of  rich  red  blossoms;  the  Cherokee  rose 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  65 

(Icevigata),  spreading  out  in  long  waving  wreaths  of  white  ; 
and,  two  months  later,  the  palmetto  royal  (yticca  gloriosa) , 
which  protects  the  fence  with  its  prickly  leaves,  and  de- 
lights the  eyes  with  its  pyramid-like  clusters  of  white 
flowers.  Some  of  these  trees  and  shrubs  serve  a  utilitarian 
end  in  art  and  medicine.  The  live-oak  is  famous  in  ship- 
building. The  palmetto,  or  cabbage- palmetto,  as  it  is 
called,  resists  destruction  by  worms,  and  is  used  for  facing 
wharves;  it  was  employed  to  protect  Fort  Moultrie  in 
1776,  when  bombarded  by  the  British  fleet,  and  the  cannon- 
balls  were  buried  in  its  spongy  substance.  The  moss 
(tillandsia  usne  aides)  served  to  calk  the  rude  vessel  of  the 
first  French  colonists,  longing  for  home ;  it  may  be  used 
for  bedding  after  its  life  has  been  killed  by  boiling  water, 
and  for  the  subsistence  of  cattle  when  destitute  of  other 
food.  The  cassena  is  a  powerful  diuretic. 

The  game  and  fish,  which  are  both  abundant  and  of  de- 
sirable kinds,  and  to  the  pursuit  of  which  the  planters  were 
much  addicted,  are  described  in  Eliot's  book.  Dr.  W.  H. 
Russell's  "  Diary "  may  also  be  consulted  in  relation  to 
fishing  for  devil  and  drum. 

The  best  dwellings  in  Beaufort  are  capacious,  with  a 
piazza  on  the  first  and  second  stories,  through  each  of 
which  runs  a  large  hall  to  admit  a  free  circulation  of  air. 
Only  one,  however,  appeared  to  have  been  built  under  the 
supervision  of  a  professional  architect.  Those  on  the 
plantations,  designed  for  the  planters  or  overseers,  were, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  of  a  very  mean  character,  and  a 
thriving  mechanic  in  New  England  would  turn  his  back  on 
them  as  unfit  to  live  in.  Their  yards  are  without  turf,  hav- 
ing as  their  best  feature  a  neighboring  grove  of  orange- 
trees.  One  or  two  dwellings  only  appear  to  be  ancient; 
indeed,  they  are  not  well  enough  built  to  last  long.  The 
estates  upon  Edisto  Island  are  of  a  more  patrician  charac- 

5 


66  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

ter,  and  are  occasionally  surrounded  by  spacious  flower- 
gardens  and  ornamental  trees  fancifully  trimmed. 

The  names  of  the  planters  indicated  mainly  an  English 
origin,  although  some  may  be  traced  to  Huguenot  families 
who  sought  a  refuge  here  from  the  religious  persecutions 
of  France. 

The  deserted  houses  were  generally  found  strewn  with  re- 
ligious periodicals,  mainly  Baptist  magazines.  This  charac- 
teristic of  Southern  life  has  been  elsewhere  observed  in  the 
progress  of  our  army.  Occasionally,  some  book  denounc- 
ing slavery  as  criminal  and  ruinous  was  found  among  those 
left  behind.  One  of  these  was  Hewatt's  "  History  of 
South  Carolina,"  published  in  1779,  and  reprinted  in  Car- 
roll's collection.  Another  was  Gre'goire's  vindication  of  the 
negro  race  and  his  tribute  to  its  distinguished  examples, 
translated  by  Warden  in  1810.  These  people  seem,  indeed, 
to  have  had  light  enough  to  see  the  infinite  wrong  of  the 
system,  and  it  is  difficult  to  believe  them  entirely  sincere 
in  their  passionate  defence  of  it  Their  very  violence, 
when  the  moral  basis  of  slavery  is  assailed,  seems  to  be 
that  of  a  man  who  distrusts  the  rightfulness  of  his  daily 
conduct,  has  resolved  to  persist  in  it,  and  therefore  hates 
most  of  all  the  prophet  who  comes  to  confront  him  for  his 
misdeeds,  and,  if  need  be,  to  publish  them  to  mankind. 

Well-authenticated  instances  of  cruelty  to  slaves  were 
brought  to  notice  without  being  sought  for.  But  it  is  un- 
pleasant to  dwell  on  these  painful  scenes  of  the  past,  con- 
stant and  authentic  as  they  are ;  and  they  hardly  concern 
the  practical  question  which  now  presses  for  a  solution. 
Nor  in  referring  to  them  is  there  any  need  of  injustice  or 
exaggeration.  Human  nature  has  not  the  physical  endur- 
ance or  moral  persistence  to  keep  up  perpetual  and  uni- 
versal cruelty ;  and  there  are  fortunate  slaves  who  never 
received  a  blow  from  their  masters.  Besides,  there  was 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  67 

less  labor  exacted  and  less  discipline  imposed  on  the 
loosely  managed  plantations  of  the  Sea  Islands  than  in 
other  districts  where  slave-labor  was  better  and  more  pro- 
fitably organized  and  directed. 

The  capture  of  Hilton  Head  and  Bay  Point  by  the 
navy,  November  7,  1861,  was  followed  by  the  immediate 
military  occupation  of  the  Sea  Islands.  In  the  latter  part 
of  December,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Chase, 
whose  foresight  as  a  statesman  and  humane  disposition 
naturally  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  subject,  deputed  my- 
self as  a  special  agent  to  visit  this  district  for  the  purpose 
of  reporting  upon  the  condition  of  the  negroes  who  had 
been  abandoned  by  the  white  population,  and  of  suggest- 
ing some  plan  for  the  organization  of  their  labor  and  the 
promotion  of  their  general  well-being.  Leaving  New 
York  January  13,  1862,  I  reached  that  city  again  on  my 
way  to  Washington  on  the  I3th  of  February,  having  in  the 
mean  time  visited  a  large  number  of  the  plantations,  and 
talked  familiarly  with  the  negroes  in  their  cabins.  The 
results  of  my  observations,  in  relation  to  the  condition  of 
the  people,  their  capacities  and  wishes,  the  culture  of  their 
crops,  and  the  best  mode  of  administration,  on  the  whole 
favorable,  were  embodied  in  a  report  (addressed  to  Secre- 
tary Chase,  from  Port  Royal,  under  date  of  February  3, 
1862),  the  substance  of  which  is  here  given:  — 

My  first  communication  to  you  was  mailed  on  the  third 
day  after  my  arrival.  The  same  day  I  mailed  two  letters 
to  benevolent  persons  1  in  Boston,  mentioned  in  my  pre- 
vious communications  to  you,  asking  for  contributions  of 
clothing,  and  for  a  teacher  or  missionary  to  be  sent,  to  be 
supported  by  the  charity  of  those  interested  in  the  move- 

1  Rev.  J.  M.  Manning,  and  Mrs.  Samuel  Cabot.  See  "Boston  Evening 
Transcript,"  January  27,  1862,  where  the  letters  are  printed. 


68  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

ment,  —  to  both  of  which  letters  favorable  answers  have 
been  received. 

I  began  at  once  a  tour  of  the  larger  islands,  and  ever 
since  have  been  diligently  engaged  in  anxious  examina- 
tions of  the  modes  of  culture;  the  amount  and  proportions 
of  the  products ;  the  labor  required  for  them  ;  the  life  and 
disposition  of  the  laborers  upon  them;  their  estimated 
numbers;  the  treatment  they 'have  received  from  their 
former  masters,  alike  as  to  the  labor  required,  the  provi- 
sions and  clothing  allowed,  and  the  discipline  imposed; 
their  habits,  capacities,  and  desires,  with  special  reference 
to  their  being  fitted  for  useful  citizenship ;  and  generally 
whatever  concerned  the  well-being,  present  and  future,  of 
the  territory  and  its  people.  Visits  have  also  been  made 
to  the  communities  collected  at  Hilton  Head  and  Beau- 
fort, and  conferences  held  with  the  authorities  both  naval 
and  military,  and  with  other  benevolent  persons  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  these  people,  and  in  the  wise  and  speedy 
reorganization  of  society  here.  No  one  can  be  impressed 
more  than  myself  with  the  uncertainty  of  conclusions 
drawn  from  experiences  and  reflections  included  in  so 
brief  a  period,  however  industriously  and  wisely  occupied. 
Nevertheless,  they  may  be  of  some  service  to  those  who 
have  not  been  privileged  with  an  equal  opportunity. 

Of  the  plantations  visited,  full  notes  have  been  taken  of 
seventeen,  with  reference  to  number  of  negroes  in  all,  and 
particularly  of  field-hands;  amount  of  cotton  and  corn 
raised,  and  how  much  per  acre;  time  and  mode  of  produc- 
ing and  distributing  manure ;  listing,  planting,  cultivating, 
picking,  and  ginning  cotton;  labor  required  of  each  hand; 
allowance  of  food  and  clothing ;  the  capacities  of  the  labor- 
ers, and  their  wishes  and  feelings  both  as  to  themselves 
and  their  masters.  Many  of  the  above  points  could  be 
determined  by  other  sources,  —  such  as  persons  at  the 


THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL.        69 

North  familiar  with  the  region,  and  publications.  The 
inquiries  were,  however,  made  with  the  double  purpose 
of  acquiring  the  information  and  testing  the  capacity  of 
the  persons  inquired  of.  Some  of  the  leading  results  of 
the  examination  will  now  be  submitted. 

A  fact  derived  from  the  Census  of  1860  may  serve  to 
illustrate  the  responsibility  now  devolving  on  the  govern- 
ment. This  county  of  Beaufort  had  a  population  of  slaves 
in  proportion  of  82  8.10  of  the  whole,  —  a  proportion  only 
exceeded  by  seven  other  counties  in  the  United  States; 
namely,  one  in  South  Carolina,  that  of  Georgetown ;  three 
in  Mississippi,  those  of  Bolivar,  Washington,  and  Isse- 
quena;  and  three  in  Louisiana,  those  of  Madison,  Tensas, 
and  Concordia. 

An  impression  prevails  that  the  negroes  here  have  been 
less  cared  for  than  in  most  other  rebel  districts.  If  this  be 
so,  and  a  beneficent  reform  shall  be  achieved  here,  the  ex- 
periment may  anywhere  else  be  hopefully  attempted. 

The  former  white  population,  so  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, are  rebels,  with  one  or  two  exceptions.  In  January, 
1 86 1,  a  meeting  of  the  planters  on  St.  Helena  Island  was 
held,  of  which  Thomas  Aston  Coffin  was  chairman.  A 
vote  was  passed,  stating  their  exposed  condition,  and  offer- 
ing their  slaves  to  the  governor  of  South  Carolina,  to  aid  in 
building  earthworks,  and  calling  on  him  for  guns  to  mount 
upon  them.  A  copy  of  the  vote,  probably  in  his  hand- 
writing, and  signed  by  Mr.  Coffin,  was  found  in  his  house. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  negroes  now  within  our 
lines  are  there  by  the  invitation  of  no  one ;  but  they  were 
on  the  soil  when  our  army  began  its  occupation,  and  could 
not  have  been  excluded,  except  by  violent  transportation. 
A  small  proportion  have  come  in  from  the  main-land, 
evading  the  pickets  of  the  enemy  and  our  own,  —  some- 


70  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

thing  easily  done  in  an  extensive  country,  with  whose  woods 
and  creeks  they  are  familiar. 

The  only  exportable  crop  of  this  region  is  the  long 
staple  Sea  Island  cotton,  raised  with  more  difficulty  than 
the  coarser  kind,  and  bringing  a  higher  price. 

Such  features  in  plantation  life  as  will  throw  light  on  the 
social  questions  now  anxiously  weighed  deserve  notice. 

Upon  each  plantation  visited  by  me,  familiar  conversa- 
tions were  had  with  several  laborers,  conversations  more 
or  less  full,  as  time  permitted,  —  sometimes  inquiries  made 
of  them,  as  they  collected  in  groups,  as  to  what  they  de- 
sired us  to  do  with  and  for  them,  with  advice  as  to  the 
course  of  sobriety  and  industry  which  it  is  for  their  inter- 
est to  pursue  under  the  new  and  strange  circumstances 
in  which  they  are  now  placed.  Inquiries  as  to  plantation 
economy,  the  culture  of  crops,  the  implements  still  re- 
maining, the  number  of  persons  in  all,  and  of  field-hands 
and  the  rations  issued  were  made  of  the  "  drivers,"  as  they 
are  called,  answering,  as  nearly  as  the  two  different  systems 
of  labor  will  permit,  to  foremen  on  farms  in  the  free  States. 
There  is  one  driver  on  each  plantation,  —  on  the  largest 
one  visited,  two.  They  still  remained  on  each  plantation, 
and  their  names  were  noted.  The  business  of  the  driver 
was  to  superintend  the  field-hands  generally,  and  see  that 
their  tasks  were  performed  fully  and  properly.  He  con- 
trolled them  subject  to  the  master  or  overseer ;  he  dealt 
out  the  rations.  Another  office  belonged  to  him  :  he  was 
required  by  the  master  or  overseer,  whenever  either  saw 
fit,  to  inflict  corporal  punishment  upon  the  laborers ;  nor 
was  he  relieved  from  this  service  when  the  subject  of 
discipline  was  his  own  wife  or  children.  In  the  absence 
of  the  master  and  overseer,  he  succeeded  to  much  of  their 
authority. 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  71 

There  are  also  on  the  plantations  other  laborers,  more 
intelligent  than  the  average,  —  such  as  the  carpenter,  the 
plowman,  the  religious  leader  (who  may  be  called  a 
preacher),  a  watchman,  and  a  helper,  the  two  latter  being 
recognized  officers  in  the  churches  of  these  people,  and 
the  helpers  being  aids  to  the  watchmen.  These  persons, 
having  recognized  positions  among  their  fellows,  either  by 
virtue  of  superior  knowledge  or  devotion,  when  properly 
approached  by  us,  may  be  expected  to  have  a  beneficial 
influence  on  the  more  ignorant,  and  to  help  in  creating  that 
public  opinion  in  favor  of  good  conduct  which,  among  the 
humblest  as  among  the  highest,  is  most  useful.  I  saw 
many  of  very  low  intellectual  development,  but  hardly  any 
too  low  to  be  reached  by  civilizing  influences  either  com- 
ing directly  from  us  or  mediately  through  their  brethren ; 
and  while  I  saw  some  who  were  sadly  degraded,  I  met  also 
others  who  were  as  fine  specimens  of  human  nature  as  one 
can  ever  expect  to  find. 

It  seemed  a  part  of  my  duty  to  attend  the  religious 
meetings  of  these  people,  and  learn  further  what  could  be 
derived  from  such  a  source.  Their  exhortations  to  per- 
sonal piety  were  fervent ;  and,  though  their  language  was 
many  times  confused,  at  least  to  my  ear,  occasionally  an 
important  instruction  or  a  felicitous  expression  could  be 
recognized.  In  one  case,  a  preacher  of  their  own,  com- 
menting on  the  text,  "  Blessed  are  the  meek,"  exhorted  his 
brethren  not  to  be  "  stout-minded."  On  one  plantation  on 
Ladies'  Island,  where  some  thirty  negroes  were  gathered 
in  the  evening,  I  read  passages  of  Scripture,  and  pressed 
on  them  their  practical  duties  at  the  present  time  with  re- 
ference to  the  good  of  themselves,  their  children,  and  their 
people.  The  passages  read  were  the  first  and  twenty-third 
Psalms,  the  sixty-first  chapter  of  Isaiah,  verses  1-4,  the 
Beatitudes  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  the  fourteenth 


72  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  and  the  fifth  chapter  of  the 
Epistle  of  James.  In  substance,  I  told  them  that  their 
masters  had  rebelled  against  the  government,  and  we  had 
come  to  put  down  the  rebellion ;  that  we  had  now  met 
them,  and  wanted  to  see  what  was  best  to  do  for  them ; 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  —  the  President  or  Great  Man  at  Wash- 
ington  had  the  whole  matter  in  charge,  and  was  thinking 

what  he  could  do  for  them ;  that  the  great  trouble  about 
doing  anything  for  them  was  that  their  masters  had  always 
told  us,  and  had  made  many  people  believe  so,  that  they 
were  lazy  and  would  not  work  unless  whipped  to  it;  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  had  sent  us  down  here  to  see  if  it  was  so ;  that 
what  they  did  was  reported  to  him,  or  to  men  who  would 
tell  him ;  that  where  I  came  from  all  were  free,  both  white 
and  black;  that  we  did  not  sell  children  or  separate  man 
and  wife,  but  all  had  to  work ;  that  if  they  were  to  be  free, 
they  would  have  to  work,  and  would  be  shut  up  or  de- 
prived of  privileges  if  they  did  not ;  that  this  was  a  critical 
hour  with  them,  and  if  they  did  not  behave  well  now  and 
respect  our  agents  and  appear  willing  to  work,  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  cease  trying  to  do  anything  for  them,  and  they  must 
give  up  all  hope  of  anything  better,  and  their  children  and 
grandchildren  a  hundred  years  hence  would  be  worse  off 
than  they  had  been.  I  told  them  they  must  stick  to  their 
plantations,  and  not  run  about  and  get  scattered.  I  assured 
them  that  what  their  masters  had  told  them  of  our  inten- 
tions to  carry  them  off  to  Cuba  and  sell  them  was  a  lie, 
and  their  masters  knew  it  to  be  so  ;  that  we  wanted  them 
to  stay  on  the  plantations  and  raise  cotton,  and  if  they  be- 
haved well  they  should  have  wages,  small  perhaps  at  first ; 
that  they  should  have  better  food,  and  not  have  their  wives 
and  children  sold  off;  that  their  children  should  be  taught 
to  read  and  write,  for  which  they  might  be  willing  to  pay 
something  ;  that  by  and  by  they  would  be  as  well  off  as  the 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  73 

white  people,  and  we  would  stand  by  them  against  their 
masters  ever  coming  back  to  take  them.  The  importance 
of  exerting  a  good  influence  on  one  another,  particularly  on 
the  younger  men,  who  were  rather  careless  and  roving,  was 
urged,  as  all  would  suffer  in  good  repute  from  the  bad 
dee^ds  of  a  few.  The  name  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  used  in 
addressing  them,  as  more  likely  to  impress  them  than  the 
abstract  idea  of  government. 

It  is  important  to  add  that  in  no  case  have  I  attempted 
to  excite  them  by  insurrectionary  appeals  against  their 
former  masters,  feeling  that  such  a  course  might  increase 
the  trouble  of  organizing  them  into  a  peaceful  and  improv- 
ing system,  under  a  just  and  healthful  temporary  discipline ; 
and,  besides,  it  is  a  dangerous  experiment  to  attempt  the 
improvement  of  a  class  of  men  by  appealing  to  their 
coarser  nature.  The  better  way  toward  making  them  our 
faithful  allies,  and  therefore  the  constant  enemies  of  the 
rebels,  seemed  to  be  to  place  before  them  the  good  things 
to  be  done  for  them  and  their  children,  and  by  sometimes 
reading  passages  of  Scripture  appropriate  to  their  lot 
(without,  however,  note  or  comment)  never  before  heard 
by  them,  or  heard  only  when  wrested  from  their  just  inter- 
pretation,—  such,  for  instance,  as  the  last  chapter  of  St. 
James's  Epistle,  and  the  glad  tidings  of  Isaiah:  "I  have 
come  to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captive."  Thus  treated 
and  thus  educated,  they  may  be  hoped  to  become  useful 
coadjutors  with  us,  and  the  unconquerable  foes  of  the 
fugitive  rebels. 

There  are  some  vices  charged  upon  these  people  which 
deserve  examination.  Notwithstanding  their  religious 
professions,  in  some  cases  more  emotional  than  practical, 
the  marriage  relation,  or  what  answers  for  it,  is  not,  in 
many  instances,  held  very  sacred  by  them.  The  grounds 
of  this  charge,  so  far  as  they  may  exist,  will  be  removed, 


74  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

as  much  as  in  communities  of  our  own  race,  by  a  system 
which  shall  recognize  and  enforce  the  marriage  relation 
among  them,  protect  their  women  against  the  solicitations 
of  white  men  as  much  as  law  can,  and  still  more  by  put- 
ting them  in  relations  where  they  will  be  inspired  with  self- 
respect  and  a  consciousness  of  their  rights,  and  taught* by 
a  pure  and  plain-spoken  Christianity. 

With  reference  to  the  veracity  of  these  people,  so  far  as 
my  relations  with  them  have  extended,  they  have  appeared, 
as  a  class,  to  intend  to  tell  the  truth.  Their  manner,  as 
much  as  among  white  men,  bore  instinctive  evidence  of 
this  intention.  Their  answers  to  inquiries  relative  to  the 
management  of  the  plantations  have  a  general  concurrence. 
They  make  no  universal  charges  of  cruelty  against  their 
masters.  They  will  say  in  some  cases  that  their  own  was 
a  very  kind  master,  but  that  another  in  the  neighborhood 
was  cruel. 

Again,  there  can  be  no  more  delicate  and  responsible 
position,  involving  honesty  and  skill,  than  that  of  pilot. 
For  this  purpose  these  people  are  every  day  employed  to 
aid  our  military  and  naval  operations  in  navigating  these 
sinuous  channels.  They  were  used  in  the  recent  recon- 
noissance  in  the  direction  of  Savannah;  and  the  success 
of  the  affair  at  Port  Royal  Ferry  depended  on  the  fidelity 
of  a  pilot  named  William,  without  the  aid  of  whom,  or  of 
one  like  him,  it  could  not  have  been  undertaken.  Further 
information  on  this  point  may  be  obtained  of  the  proper 
authorities  here.  These  services  are  not,  it  is  true,  in  all 
respects  illustrative  of  the  quality  of  veracity,  but  they  in- 
volve kindred  virtues  not  likely  to  exist  without  it. 

It  is  proper,  however,  to  state  that  expressions  are  some- 
times heard  from  persons  who  have  not  considered  these 
people  thoughtfully,  to  the  effect  that  their  word  is  not  to 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


75 


be  trusted ;  but  such  persons  nevertheless  do  trust  them, 
and  act  upon  their  statements.  There  may,  however,  be 
some  color  for  such  expressions.  These  laborers,  like  all 
ignorant  people,  have  an  ill-regulated  reason,  too  much 
under  the  control  of  the  imagination.  Therefore,  when 
they  report  the  numbers  of  soldiers,  or  relate  facts  where 
there  is  room  for  conjecture,  they  are  likely  to  be  extrava- 
gant, and  it  is  necessary  to  scrutinize  their  reports.  Still, 
except  among  the  thoroughly  dishonest,  —  no  more  nu- 
merous among  them  than  in  other  races,  —  there  will  be 
found  a  basis  for  their  statements,  enough  to  show  their 
honest  intention  to  speak  truly. 

It  is  true  also  that  you  will  find  them  too  willing  to  ex- 
press feelings  which  will  please  you.  This  is  most  natural. 
All  races,  as  well  as  all  animals,  have  their  appropriate 
means  of  self-defence ;  and  where  the  power  to  use  physi- 
cal force  to  defend  one's  self  is  taken  away,  the  weaker 
animal,  or  man,  or  race,  resorts  to  cunning  and  duplicity. 
Whatever  habits  of  this  kind  may  appear  in  these  people 
are  directly  traceable  to  the  well-known  features  of  their 
past  condition,  without  involving  any  essential  proneness 
to  deception  in  the  race,  further  than  may  be  ascribed  to 
human  nature  in  general. 

Upon  the  question  of  the  disposition  of  these  people  to 
work,  there  are  different  reports,  varied  somewhat  by  the 
impression  an  idle  or  an  industrious  laborer,  brought  into 
immediate  relation  with  the  witness,  may  have  made  on  the 
mind.  In  conversations  with  them,  they  uniformly  answered 
to  assurances  that  if  free  they  must  work,  "  Yes,  massa,  we 
must  work  to  live ;  that 's  the  law ;  "  and  they  expressed 
an  anxiety  that  the  work  of  the  plantations  was  not  going 
on.  Hard  words  and  epithets  are,  however,  of  no  use  in 
managing  them ;  and  persons  for  whose  service  they  are 
specially  detailed,  who  do  not  understand  or  treat  them 


76  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

properly,  find  some  trouble  in  making  their  labor  avail- 
able, as  might  naturally  be  expected.  In  collecting  cot- 
ton, it  is  sometimes,  as  I  am  told,  difficult  to  get  them  to- 
gether, when  wanted  for  work.  There  may  be  something 
in  this,  particularly  among  the  young  men.  I  have  ob- 
served them  a  good  deal ;  and  though  they  often  do  not 
work  to  much  advantage,  a  dozen  doing  sometimes  what 
one  or  two  stout  and  well-trained  Northern  laborers  would 
do,  and  though  less  must  always  be  expected  of  persons 
native  to  this  soil  than  of  those  bred  in  Northern  latitudes 
and  under  more  bracing  air,  I  have  not  been  at  all  im- 
pressed with  their  general  indolence.  As  servants,  oars- 
men, and  carpenters,  I  have  seen  them  working  faithfully 
and  with  a  will. 

There  are  some  peculiar  circumstances  in  the  condition 
of  these  people  which  no  one  who  assumes  to  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  them  must  overlook.  They  are  now  for  the 
first  time  freed  from  the  restraint  of  a  master,  and,  like 
children  whose  guardian  or  teacher  is  absent  for  the  day, 
they  may  quite  naturally  enjoy  an  interval  of  idleness. 
No  system  of  labor  for  them,  outside  the  camps,  has  been 
begun,  and  they  have  had  nothing  to  do  except  to  bale  the 
cotton  when  bagging  was  furnished,  —  and  we  all  know 
that  men  partially  employed  are  if  anything  less  disposed 
to  do  the  little  assigned  them  than  they  are  to  perform  the 
full  measure  which  belongs  to  them  in  regular  life,  the 
virtue  in  the  latter  case  being  supported  by  habit.  At 
the  camps  they  are  away  from  their  accustomed  places  of 
labor,  and  have  not  been  so  promptly  paid  as  could  be 
desired,  and  are  exposed  to  the  same  circumstances  which 
often  dispose  soldiers  to  make  as  little  exertion  as  possible. 
In  the  general  chaos  which  prevails,  and  before  the  inspi- 
rations of  labor  have  been  set  before  them  by  proper 
superintendents  and  teachers  who  understand  their  dispo- 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


77 


sition,  and  show  by  their  conduct  an  interest  in  their  wel- 
fare, no  humane  or  reasonable  man  would  subject  them  to 
austere  criticism,  or  make  the  race  responsible  for  the  de- 
linquencies of  an  idle  person  who  happened  to  be  brought 
particularly  under  his  own  observation.  Not  thus  would 
we  have  ourselves  or  our  own  race  judged  ;  and  the  judg- 
ment which  we  would  not  have  meted  to  us,  let  us  not 
measure  to  others. 

Upon  the  best  examination  of  these  people  and  a  com- 
parison of  the  evidence  of  trustworthy  persons,  I  believe 
that  when  properly  organized,  and  with  proper  motives 
set  before  them,  they  will  as  freemen  be  as  industrious  as 
any  race  of  men  are  likely  to  be  in  this  climate. 

The  notions  of  the  sacredness  of  property  as  held  by 
these  people  have  sometimes  been  the  subject  of  discussion 
here.  It  is  reported  that  they  have  taken  things  left  in 
their  masters'  houses.  It  was  wise  to  prevent  this,  and 
even  where  it  had  been  done  to  compel  a  restoration,  at 
least  of  expensive  articles,  lest  they  should  be  injured  by 
speedily  acquiring  without  purchase  articles  above  their 
condition  ;  but  a  moment's  reflection  will  show  that  it  was 
a  natural  thing  for  them  to  do.  They  had  been  occupants 
of  the  estates ;  had  had  these  things  more  or  less  in 
charge  ;  and  when  the  former  owners  had  left,  it  was  easy 
for  them  to  regard  their  title  to  the  abandoned  property  as 
better  than  that  of  strangers.  Still,  it  is  not  true  that  they 
have,  except  as  to  very  simple  articles,  as  soap  or  dishes, 
generally  availed  themselves  of  such  property.  It  is  also 
stated  that  in  camps  where  they  have  been  destitute 
of  clothing  they  have  stolen  from  one  another ;  but  the 
superintendents  are  of  opinion  that  they  would  not  have 
done  this  if  already  well  provided.  Besides,  those  familiar 
with  large  bodies  collected  together,  like  soldiers  in  camp 
life,  know  how  these  charges  of  mutual  pilfering  are  made 


78  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

among  them  often  with  great  injustice.  It  should  be 
added,  to  complete  the  statement,  that  the  agents  who 
have  been  intrusted  with  the  collection  of  cotton  have  re- 
posed confidence  in  the  trustworthiness  of  the  laborers, 
committing  property  to  their  charge, —a  confidence  not 
found  to  have  been  misplaced. 

To  what  extent  these  laborers  desire  to  be  free,  and  to 
serve  us  still  further  in  putting  down  the  rebellion,  has 
been  a  subject  of  examination.  The  desire  to  be  free  has 
been  strongly  expressed,  particularly  among  the  more 
intelligent  and  adventurous.  Almost  every  day  adds  a 
fresh  tale  of  escapes,  both  solitary  and  in  numbers,  con- 
ducted with  a  courage,  a  forecast,  and  a  skill  worthy  of 
heroes. 

But  there  are  other  apparent  features  in  their  disposi- 
tion which  it  would  be  untruthful  to  conceal.  On  the 
plantations,  I  often  found  a  disposition  to  evade  the  inquiry 
whether  or  not  they  wished  to  be  free;  and  though  a 
preference  for  freedom  was  expressed,  it  was  rarely  in  the 
passionate  phrases  which  would  come  from  an  Italian 
peasant.  The  secluded  and  monotonous  life  of  a  planta- 
tion, with  strict  discipline  and  ignorance  enforced  by  law 
and  custom,  is  not  favorable  to  the  development  of  the 
richer  sentiments ;  though  even  there  they  find  at  least  a 
stunted  growth,  irrepressible  as  they  are.  The  inquiry 
was  often  answered  in  this  way :  "  The  white  man  do  what 
he  pleases  with  us ;  we  are  yours  now,  Massa."  One,  if  I 
understood  his  broken  words  rightly,  said  that  he  did  not 
care  about  being  free  if  he  only  had  a  good  master. 
Others  said  they  would  like  to  be  free,  but  they  wanted  a 
white  man  for  a  "  protector."  All  of  proper  age,  when  in- 
quired of,  expressed  a  desire  to  have  their  children  taught 
to  read  and  write,  and  to  learn  themselves.  On  this  point 
they  showed  more  earnestness  than  on  any  other.  When 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  79 

asked  if  they  were  willing  to  fight  in  case  we  needed  them 
to  keep  their  masters  from  coming  back,  they  would  seem 
to  shrink  from  that,  saying  that  "  black  men  have  been 
kept  down  so  like  dogs  that  they  would  run  before  white 
men." 

At  the  close  of  the  first  week's  observation,  I  almost  con- 
cluded that  on  the  plantations  there  was  but  little  earnest 
desire  for  freedom,  and  scarcely  any  willingness  for  its  sake 
to  encounter  white  men.  But  as  showing  the  importance 
of  not  attempting  to  reach  general  conclusions  too  hastily, 
another  class  of  facts  came  to  my  notice  the  second  week. 
I  met  then  s»ome  more  intelligent  negroes,  who  spoke  with 
profound  earnestness  of  their  desire  to  be  free,  and  said 
they  had  longed  to  see  this  day.  Other  facts  connected 
with  the  military  and  naval  operations  were  noted.  At  the 
recent  reconnoissance  toward  Pulaski,  negro  pilots  stood 
well  under  fire,  and  were  not  reluctant  to  the  service. 
When  a  district  of  Ladies'  Island  was  left  exposed,  they 
voluntarily  took  such  guns  as  they  could  procure,  and 
stood  sentries.  Also  at  Edisto,  where  the  colony  is  col- 
lected under  the  protection  of  our  gunboats,  they  armed 
themselves  and  drove  back  the  rebel  cavalry.  An  officer 
here  high  in  command  reported  to  me  some  of  these  facts, 
which  had  been  officially  communicated  to  him.  The  sug- 
gestion may  be  pertinent  that  the  negroes  are  divisible 
into  two  classes.  Those  who  by  their  occupation  have 
been  accustomed  to  independent  labor,  and  schooled 
in  some  sort  of  self-reliance,  are  more  developed  in  this 
direction;  while  others,  who  have  been  bound  to  the 
routine  of  plantation  life,  and  kept  more  strictly  under 
surveillance,  are  but  little  awakened.  But  even  among 
these  last  there  has  been,  under  the  quickening  inspiration 
of  present  events,  a  rapid  development,  indicating  that  the 
same  feeling  is  only  latent. 


gO  THE   FREEDMEN  AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

There  is  another  consideration  which  must  not  be 
omitted.  Many  of  these  people  have  still  but  little  confi- 
dence in  us,  anxiously  looking  to  see  what  disposition  we 
are  to  make  of  them.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that, 
separated  from  the  world,  never  having  read  a  Northern 
book  or  newspaper  relative  to  them,  or  talked  with  a  North- 
ern man  expressing  the  sentiments  prevalent  in  his  region, 
they  are  universally  and  with  entire  confidence  welcoming 
us  as  their  deliverers.  Here,  as  everywhere  else,  where 
our  army  has  met  them,  they  have  been  assured  by  their 
masters  that  we  were  going  to  carry  them  off  to  Cuba. 
There  is  probably  not  a  rebel  master,  from  the  Potomac  to 
the  Gulf,  who  has  not  repeatedly  made  this  assurance  to 
his  slaves.  No  matter  what  his  religious  vows  may  have 
been,  no  matter  what  his  professed  honor  as  a  gentleman, 
he  has  not  shrunk  from  the  reiteration  of  this  falsehood. 
Never  was  there  a  people,  as  all  who  know  these  blacks 
will  testify,  more  attached  to  familiar  places  than  they. 
Be  their  home  a  cabin,  and  not  even  that  cabin  their  own, 
they  still  cling  to  it.  The  reiteration  could  not  fail  to  have 
had  some  effect  on  a  point  on  which  they  were  so  sensitive. 
Often  it  must  have  been  met  with  unbelief  or  great  suspi- 
cion of  its  truth.  It  was  also  balanced  by  the  considera- 
tion that  their  masters  would  remove  them  into  the  interior, 
and  perhaps  to  a  remote  region,  and  separate  their  fami- 
lies,—  a  fate  about  as  bad  as  being  taken  to  Cuba;  and 
they  felt  more  inclined  to  remain  on  the  plantations,  and 
take  their  chances  with  us.  They  have  told  me  that  they 
reasoned  in  this  way.  But  in  many  cases  they  fled  at  the 
approach  of  our  army ;  then  one  or  two  bolder  returning, 
the  rest  were  reassured  and  came  back.  Recently,  the 
laborers  on  Paris  Island,  seeing  some  schooners  approach- 
ing suspiciously,  began  gathering  their  little  effects  rapidly 
together,  and  were  about  to  run,  when  they  were  quieted 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  8 1 

by  the  coming  of  some  of  our  teachers  in  whom  they  had 
confidence.  In  some  cases  their  distrust  has  been  in- 
creased by  the  bad  conduct  of  some  irresponsible  white 
men  from  the  North,  of  which,  for  the  honor  of  human 
nature,  it  is  not  best  to  speak  more  particularly.  On  the 
whole,  their  confidence  in  us  has  been  greatly  increased  by 
the  treatment  they  have  received,  which,  in  spite  of  many 
individual  cases  of  injury  less  likely  to  occur  under  the 
stringent  orders  recently  issued  from  the  naval  and  military 
authorities,  has  been  generally  kind  and  humane.  But  the 
distrust  which  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  may  have  existed 
on  our  arrival  renders  necessary,  if  we  would  keep  them 
faithful  allies  and  not  informers  to  the  enemy,  the  immedi- 
ate adoption  of  a  system  which  shall  be  a  pledge  of  our 
protection  and  of  our  permanent  interest  in  their  welfare. 

The  manner  of  the  laborers  toward  us  has  been  kind  and 
deferential,  doing  for  us  such  good  offices  as  were  in  their 
power,  as  guides,  pilots,  or  in  more  personal  service,  invit- 
ing us  on  the  plantations  to  lunch  of  hominy  and  milk  or 
potatoes,  touching  the  hat  in  courtesy,  and  answering 
politely  such  questions  as  were  addressed  to  them.  If 
there  have  been  exceptions  to  this  rule,  it  was  in  the  case 
of  those  whose  bearing  did  not  entitle  them  to  the  civility. 

In  the  report  thus  far,  such  facts  in  the  condition  of  the 
territory  now  occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United  States 
have  been  noted  as  seemed  to  throw  light  on  what  should 
be  done  to  reorganize  the  laborers,  prepare  them  to  be- 
come sober  and  self-supporting  citizens,  and  secure  the 
successful  culture  of  a  cotton  crop,  now  so  necessary  to  be 
contributed  to  the  markets  of  the  world.  It  will  appear 
from  what  I  have  said,  that  these  people  are  naturally  relig- 
ious and  simple-hearted,  attached  to  the  places  where  they 
have  lived,  still  adhering  to  them  both  from  a  feeling  of 

6 


82         THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL. 

local  attachment  and  self-interest  in  securing  the  means  of 
subsistence  ;  that  they  have  the  knowledge  and  experience 
requisite  to  do  all  the  labor,  from  the  preparation  of  the 
ground  for  planting  until  the  cotton  is  baled,  ready  to  be 
exported ;  that  they,  or  the  great  mass  of  them,  are  dis- 
posed to  labor,  with  proper  inducements  thereto;  that 
they  lean  upon  white  men,  and  desire  their  protection,  and 
could  therefore,  under  a  wise  system,  be  easily  brought 
under  subordination ;  that  they  are  susceptible  to  the  higher 
considerations,  as  duty  and  love  of  offspring,  and  are  not 
in  any  way  inherently  vicious,  — their  defects  coming  from 
their  peculiar  condition  in  the  past  or  present,  and  not 
from  constitutional  proneness  to  evil  beyond  what  may  be 
attributed  to  human  nature ;  that  they  have  among  them 
natural  chiefs,  either  by  virtue  of  religious  leadership  or 
superior  intelligence,  who,  being  first  addressed,  may  exert 
a  healthful  influence  on  the  rest;  in  a  word,  that  in  spite 
of  their  condition,  reputed  to  be  worse  here  than  in  many 
other  parts  of  the  rebellious  region,  there  are  such 
features  in  their  life  and  character  that  the  opportu- 
nity is  now  offered  to  us  to  make  of  them,  partially  in 
this  generation  and  fully  in  the  next,  a  happy,  industrious, 
law-abiding,  free,  and  Christian  people,  if  we  have  but  the 
courage  and  patience  to  accept  it.  If  this  be  the  better 
view  of  them  and  their  possibilities,  I  will  say  that  I  have 
come  to  it  after  anxious  study  of  all  peculiar  circumstances 
in  their  lot  and  character,  and  after  anxious  conference 
with  reflecting  minds  here  who  are  prosecuting  like  in- 
quiries,—  not  overlooking  what,  to  a  casual  spectator, 
might  appear  otherwise,  and  granting  what  is  likely 
enough,  that  there  are  those  among  them  whose  characters, 
by  reason  of  bad  nature  or  treatment,  are  set,  and  not  ad- 
mitting of  much  improvement.  And  I  will  submit  further, 
that,  in  common  fairness  and  common  charity,  when  by 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  83 

the  order  of  Providence  an  individual  or  a  race  is  com- 
mitted to  our  care,  the  better  view  is  entitled  to  be  first 
practically  applied.  If  this  one  shall  be  accepted  and 
crowned  with  success,  history  will  have  the  glad  privilege 
of  recording  that  this  wicked  and  unprovoked  rebellion 
was  not  without  compensations  most  welcome  to  our 
race.. 

What,  then,  should  be  the  true  system  of  administration 
here? 

It  has  been  proposed  to  lease  the  plantations  and  the 
people  upon  them.  To  this  plan  there  are  two  objections, 
each  conclusive.  In  the  first  .place,  the  leading  object  of 
the  parties  bidding  for  leases  would  be  to  obtain  a  large 
immediate  revenue,  —  perhaps  to  make  a  fortune  in  a  year 
or  two.  The  solicitations  of  doubtful  men  offering  the 
highest  price  would  impose  on  the  leasing  power  a  stern 
duty  of  refusal,  to  which  it  ought  not  unnecessarily  to  be 
subjected :  far  better  a  system  which  shall  not  invite 
such  men  to  harass  the  leasing  power,  or  excite  expec- 
tations of  a  speedy  fortune  to  be  derived  from  the  labor 
of  this  people.  Secondly,  no  man,  not  even  the  best  of 
men,  charged  with  the  duties  which  ought  to  belong  to  the 
guardians  of  these  people,  should  be  put  in  a  position 
where  there  would  be  such  a  conflict  between  his  humanity 
and  his  self-interest,  —  his  desire,  on  the  one  hand,  to  bene- 
fit the  laborer,  and  on  the  other  the  too  often  stronger 
desire  to  reap  a  large  revenue  at  once.  Such  a  system  is 
beset  with  many  of  the  worst  vices  of  the  slave  system, 
with  one  advantage  in  favor  of  the  latter,  —  that  it  is  for 
the  interest  of  the  planter  to  look  to  permanent  results. 
Let  the  history  of  British  East  India,  and  of  all  communi- 
ties where  a  superior  race  has  attempted  to  build  up 
speedy  fortunes  on  the  labor  of  an  inferior  race  occupying 
another  region,  be  remembered,  and  no  just  man  will  listen 


84  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

to  the  proposition  of  leasing,  fraught  as  it  is  with  such 
dangerous  consequences.  Personal  confidence  forbids  me 
to  report  the  language  of  intense  indignation  which  has 
been  expressed  against  it  here  by  some  persons  occupying 
hi^h  places  of  command,  as  also  by  others  who  have  come 
here  for  the  special  purpose  of  promoting  the  welfare  of 
these  laborers.  Perhaps  it  might  yield  to  the  treasury  a 
larger  immediate  revenue,  but  it  would  be  sure  to  spoil  the 
country  and  its  people  in  the  end.  The  government 
should  be  satisfied  if  the  products  of  the  territory  may 
be  made  sufficient  for  a  year  or  two  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  administration  and  superintendence,  and  of  the  inau- 
guration of  a  beneficent  system  which  will  settle  a  great 
social  question,  insure  the  sympathies  of  foreign  nations 
now  wielded  against  us,  and  advance  the  civilization  of 
the  age. 

The  better  course  would  be  to  appoint  superintendents 
for  each  large  plantation,  and  one  for  two  or  three  smaller 
combined,  —  compensated  with  a  good  salary  (say  one 
thousand  dollars  per  year)  ;  selected  with  reference  to  pe- 
culiar qualifications,  and  as  carefully  as  one  would  choose 
a  guardian  for  his  children ;  clothed  with  an  adequate 
power  to  enforce  a  paternal  discipline,  to  require  a  proper 
amount  of  labor,  cleanliness,  sobriety,  and  better  habits  of 
life,  and  generally  to  promote  the  moral  and  intellectual 
culture  of  the  wards,  with  such  other  inducements,  if  there 
be  any,  placed  before  the  superintendent  as  shall  inspire 
him  to  constant  efforts  to  prepare  them  for  useful  and 
worthy  citizenship,.  To  quicken  and  insure  the  fidelity  of 
the  superintendents,  there  should  be  a  director-general  or 
governor,  who  shall  visit  the  plantations  and  see  that  the 
superintendents  are  discharging  their  duties ;  and,  if  ne- 
cessary, he  should  be  aided  by  others  in  the  duty  of  visi- 
tation. This  officer  should  be  invested  with  liberal  powers 


THE    FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  85 

over  all  persons  within  his  jurisdiction,  so  as  to  protect  the 
blacks  from  one  another  and  from  white  men,  being  re- 
quired in  most  important  cases  to  confer  with  the  military 
authorities  in  punishing  offences.  His  proposed  duties 
indicate  that  he  should  be  a  man  of  the  best  ability  and 
character,  —  better  if  he  have  already  by  virtue  of  public 
services  a  hold  on  the  public  confidence.  Such  an  ar- 
rangement is  submitted  as  preferable  for  the  present  to  any 
cumbersome  territorial  government. 

The  laborers  themselves,  no  longer  slaves  of  their 
former  masters  or  of  the  government,  but  as  yet  in  large 
numbers  unprepared  for  the  full  privileges  of  citizens,  are 
to  be  treated  with  sole  reference  to  such  preparation.  No 
effort  is  to  be  spared  to  work  upon  their  better  nature  and 
the  motives  which  come  from  it,  —  the  love  of  wages,  of 
offspring  and  family,  the  desire  of  happiness,  and  the  ob- 
ligations of  religion.  And  when  these  fail,  and  fail  they 
will  in  some  cases,  we  must  not  hesitate  to  resort,  —  not  to 
the  lash,  which  must  be  forbidden  in  the  department  of  la- 
bor as  it  has  been  forbidden  in  the  department  of  war,  — 
but  to  the  milder  and  more  effective  punishments  of  de- 
privation of  privileges,  isolation  from  family  and  society, 
the  workhouse  or  even  the  prison.  The  laborers  are  to  be 
assured  at  the  outset  that  parental  and  conjugal  relations 
among  them  are  to  be  protected  and  enforced ;  that 
children  and  all  others  desiring  it  are  to  be  taught;  that 
they  will  receive  wages;  and  that  a  certain  just  measure  of 
work,  with  reference  to  the  ability  to  perform  it,  if  not 
willingly  rendered,  is  to  be  required  of  all.  The  work,  so 
far  as  the  case  admits,  should  be  assigned  in  proper  tasks, 
the  standard  being  what  a  healthy  person  of  average 
capacity  can  do,  for  which  a  definite  sum  should  be  paid. 
The  remark  may  perhaps  be  pertinent,  that,  whatever  may 
have  been  the  case  with  women  or  partially  disabled  per- 


86  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

sons,  my  observations  —  not  yet,  however,  sufficient  to 
decide  the  point  —  have  not  impressed  me  with  the  con- 
viction that  healthy  persons,  if  they  had  been  provided  with 
an  adequate  amount  of  food,  and  that  animal  in  due  pro- 
portion, have  been  overworked  heretofore  on  these  islands ; 
the  main  trouble  having  been  that  they  have  not  been  so 
provided,  and  have  not  had  the  motives  which  smooth 
labor.  Notwithstanding  the  frequent  and  severe  chastise- 
ments which  have  been  employed  here  in  exacting  work, 
they  have  failed,  and  naturally  enough,  of  their  intended 
effects.  Human  beings  are  made  up  so  much  more  of 
spirit  than  of  muscle,  that  compulsory  labor,  enforced  by 
physical  pain,  will  not  exceed  or  equal  in  the  long  run 
voluntary  labor  with  just  inspirations;  and  the  same  law, 
in  less  degree,  may  be  seen  in  the  difference  between  the 
value  of  a  whipped  and  jaded  beast  and  one  well  disci- 
plined and  kindly  treated. 

I  leave  for  Washington,  to  add  any  oral  explanations 
which  may  be  desired,  expecting  to  return  at  once,  and, 
with  the  permission  of  the  Department,  to  organize  the 
laborers  on  some  one  plantation,  and  superintend  them 
during  the  planting  season.  Upon  its  close,  business 
engagements  require  that  I  should  be  relieved  of  this 
appointment. 


At  this  point  the  article  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  is  resumed. 

Mr.  Chase  adopted  the  plan  proposed  by  me,  and  in- 
trusted its  execution  to  my  hands.  I  presented  the  sub- 
ject to  several  members  of  Congress,  with  whom  I  had  a 
personal  acquaintance ;  but  though  they  listened  respect- 
fully, they  seemed  either  to  dread  the  magnitude  of  the 
question,  or  to  feel  that  it  was  not  one  with  which  they 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  87 

as  legislators  were  called  upon  immediately  to  deal.  The 
Secretary  himself,  and  Mr.  Olmsted,  then  connected  with  the 
Sanitary  Commission,  alone  seemed  to  grasp  it,  and  to  see 
the  necessity  of  immediate  action.  It  is  quite  certain  that 
no  member  of  the  Cabinet  except  Mr.  Chase  took  then 
any  interest  in  the  enterprise,  though  it  has  since  been 
fostered  by  the  Secretary  of  War.  At  the  suggestion  of 
Mr.  Chase,  the  President  appointed  an  interview  with  me. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  who  was  then  chafing  under  a  prospective 
bereavement,  listened  for  a  few  moments,  and  then  said, 
somewhat  impatiently,  that  he  did  not  think  he  ought  to 
be  troubled  with  such  details,  —  that  there  seemed  to  be  an 
itching  to  get  negroes  into  our  lines ;  to  which  I  replied 
that  these  negroes  were  within  them  by  the  invitation  of 
no  one,  being  domiciled  there  before  we  began  occupation. 
The  President  then  wrote  and  handed  to  me  the  following 
card :  — 

I  shall  be  obliged  if  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  will  in  his  dis- 
cretion give  Mr.  Pierce  such  instructions  in  regard  to  Port  Royal 
contrabands  as  may  seem  judicious. 

A.  LINCOLN. 

Feb.  15,  1862. 

The  President,  so  history  must  write  it,  approached  the 
great  question  slowly  and  reluctantly  ;  and  in  February, 
1862,  he  little  dreamed  of  the  proclamations  he  was  to 
issue  in  the  September  and  January  following.  Perhaps 
that  slowness  and  reluctance  were  well ;  for  thereby  it  was 
given  to  this  people  to  work  out  their  own  salvation,  rather 
than  to  be  saved  by  any  chief  or  prophet. 

Notwithstanding  the  plan  of  superintendents  was  ac- 
cepted, there  were  no  funds  wherewith  to  pay  them.  At 
this  stage  the  "  Educational  Commission,"  organized  in 
Boston  on  the  7th  of  February,  and  the  "  Freedmen's  Re- 


88  THE   FREEDMEN  AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

lief  Association,"  organized  in  New  York  on  the  2Oth  of 
the  same  month,  gallantly  volunteered  to  pay  both  super- 
intendents and  teachers,  and  did  so  until  July  i,  when  the 
government,  having  derived  a  fund  from  the  sale  of  confis- 
cated cotton  left  in  the  territory  by  the  rebels,  undertook 
the  payment  of  the  superintendents,  —  the  two  societies, 
together  with  another  organized  in  Philadelphia  on  the  3d 
of  March,  and  called  the  "  Port  Royal  Relief  Committee," 
providing  for  the  support  of  the  teachers. 

When  these  voluntary  associations  sprang  into  being  to 
save  an  enterprise  which  otherwise  must  have  failed,  no 
authoritative  assurance  had  been  given  as  to  the  legal  condi- 
tion of  the  negroes.  The  Secretary,  in  a  letter  to  me,  had 
said,  that,  after  being  received  into  our  service,  they  could 
not,  without  great  injustice,  be  restored  to  their  masters, 
and  should  therefore  be  fitted  to  become  self-supporting 
citizens.  The  President  was  reported  to  have  said  freely, 
in  private,  that  negroes  who  were  within  our  lines,  and  had 
been  employed  by  the  government,  should  be  protected  in 
their  freedom.  No  official  assurance  of  this  had,  however, 
been  given  ;  and  its  absence  disturbed  the  societies  in  their 
formation.  At  one  meeting  of  the  Boston  society,  action 
was  temporarily  arrested  by  the  expression  of  an  opinion 
by  a  gentleman  present  that  there  was  no  evidence  show- 
ing that  these  people,  when  educated,  would  not  be  the 
victims  of  some  unhappy  compromise.  A  public  meeting 
in  Providence  for  their  relief  is  said  to  have  broken  "up 
without  action,  because  of  a  speech  from  a  furloughed 
officer  of  a  regiment  stationed  at  Port  Royal,  who  consid- 
ered such  a  result  the  probable  one.  But  the  societies,  on 
reflection,  wisely  determined  to  do  what  they  could  to 
prepare  the  freedmen  to  become  self-supporting  citizens, 
in  the  belief  that  when  they  had  become  such,  no  govern- 
ment could  ever  be  found  base  enough  to  turn  its  back 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT  ROYAL.  89 

upon  them.  These  associations,  it  should  be  stated,  have 
been  managed  by  persons  of  much  consideration  in  their 
respective  communities,  of  unostentatious  philanthropy, 
but  of  energetic  and  practical  benevolence,  hardly  one  of 
whom  has  ever  filled  or  been  a  candidate  for  a  political 
office. 

A  pleasant  interview  fell  to  my  lot  at  this  time  which 
may  here  fitly  be  mentioned.  The  venerable  Josiah 
Quincy,  just  entered  on  his  ninety-first  year,  hearing  of 
the  enterprise,  desired  to  see  one  who  had  charge  of  it. 
I  went  to  his  chamber,  where  he  had  been  confined  to 
his  bed  for  many  weeks  with  a  fractured  limb.  He 
talked  like  a  patriot  who  read  the  hour  and  its  duty. 
He  felt  troubled  lest  adequate  power  had  not  been  given 
to  protect  the  enterprise;  said  that  but  for  his  disability 
he  should  be  glad  to  write  something  about  it,  but  that 
he  was  living  "  the  postscript  of  his  life ;  "  and  as  we 
parted,  he  gave  his  hearty  benediction  to  the  work  and 
to  myself.  Restored  in  a  measure  to  activity,  he  is 
still  spared  to  the  generation  which  fondly  cherishes  his 
old  age;  and  recently,  at  the  organization  of  the  Union 
Club,  he  read  to  his  fellow-citizens,  gathering  close  about 
him  and  hanging  on  his  speech,  words  of  counsel  and 
encouragement.1 

Two  other  recognitions  I  must  not  fail  to  mention, —  one, 
a  letter  from  my  venerated  teacher  Dr.  Francis  Wayland, 
enjoining  on  me  to  dispense  no  charity  among  the  negroes 
which  would  tend  to  pauperize  them  ; 2  the  other,  a  trav- 
eller's writing-case,  as  a  gift  from  Mrs.  Wendell  Phillips, 
whom,  as  a  confirmed  invalid  confined  to  her  bed,  I  had 
never  seen,  though  often  a  caller  at  her  home  on  Essex 
Street.  Mr.  Chase's  letter  of  instructions  was  as  follows: 

1  Mr.  Quincy  lived  till  July  I,  1864. 

2  Francis  Wayland's  Memoir  by  his  Sons,  ii.  275. 


90  THE   FREEDMEN  AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

TREASURY  DEPARTMENT, 
February  19,  1862. 

SIR,  —  Your  report  as  Special  Agent,  dated  on  the  3d,  of  the 
condition  of  the  abandoned  plantations,  and  the  laborers  upon 
them,  within  the  Port  Royal  district,  is  received ;  and  it  gives  me 
great  pleasure  to  express  my  entire  approval  of  your  action  in  the 
discharge  of  the  important  duties  devolved  upon  you. 

The  whole  authority  of  this  department  over  the  subjects  of  your 
report  is  derived  from  the  fifth  section  of  the  Act  to  provide  for 
the  Collection  of  Duties,  and  for  other  purposes,  approved  July  13, 
1861 ;  by  which  the  President  is  authorized  to  permit  commercial 
intercourse  with  any  part  of  the  country  declared  to  be  in  a  state 
of  insurrection,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  may  be  pre- 
scribed by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  is  himself  authorized 
to  appoint  the  officers  needed  to  carry  into  effect  such  permits, 
rules,  and  regulations. 

As  incidental  to  this  authority,  alone,  have  I  any  power  to  sanc- 
tion any  measures  for  the  culture  of  the  abandoned  estates  in  the 
Port  Royal  or  any  other  district.  It  is,  indeed,  in  the  highest 
degree  essential  to  commercial  intercourse  with  that  portion  of  the 
country  that  the  abandoned  estates  be  cultivated,  and  the  laborers 
upon  them  employed.  I  do  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  continue 
your  agency,  with  a  view  to  the  general  superintendence  and  di- 
rection of  such  persons  as  may  be  engaged  in  such  cultivation  and 
employment. 

It  is  understood  that  an  association  of  judicious  and  humane 
citizens  has  been  formed  in  Boston,  which  may  act  in  concert  or 
be  consolidated  with  a  similar  association  in  New  York  and  other 
cities,  and  that  through  the  agency  of  these  associations,  or  one 
of  them,  persons  may  be  employed  to  proceed,  with  the  sanction 
of  the  government,  to  take  charge  of  the  abandoned  plantations 
under  the  general  plan  suggested  by  yourself,  and  which  is  fully 
approved  by  this  department. 

You  will  herewith  receive  copies  of  orders  addressed  to  the 
Quartermaster  at  New  York  and  the  General  commanding  at  Port 
Royal,  directing  that  transportation  and  subsistence,  with  all  other 
proper  facilities,  be  afforded  to  the  persons  thus  engaged. 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  91 

You  will,  therefore,  receive  applications  for  the  employments 
indicated,  and  will  select  and  appoint  such  applicants  as  you  think 
best  fitted,  and  assign  each  to  his  respective  duty ;  it  being  under- 
stood that  compensation  for  services  to  be  rendered  will  be  made 
by  the  association,  while  subsistence,  quarters,  and  transportation, 
only,  will  be  furnished  by  the  government  unless  Congress  shall 
otherwise  provide.  All  engagements  made  by  you  will,  of  course, 
be  subject  to  be  terminated  by  the  government  whenever  any 
public  exigency  shall  require. 

As  agent  of  this  department,  you  will  also  give  all  suitable  sup- 
port and  aid  to  any  persons  commissioned  or  employed  by  the 
associations  for  the  religious  instruction,  ordinary  education,  or 
general  employment  of  the  laboring  population. 

It  is  my  wish  to  prevent  the  deterioration  of  the  estates,  to  se- 
cure their  best  possible  cultivation  under  the  circumstances,  and 
the  greatest  practicable  benefit  to  the  laborers  upon  them ;  and  by 
these  general  purposes  your  own  action  will  be  guided. 

Reposing  great  trust  in  your  intelligence,  discretion,  and  be- 
nevolence, the  department  confides  this  important  mission  to  you 
with  confident  expectation  of  beneficent  results. 

With  great  respect, 

S.  P.  CHASE, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
EDWARD  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ., 

Special  Agent, 


On  the  morning  of  the  3d  of  March,  1862,  the  first  dele- 
gation of  superintendents  and  teachers  —  fifty-three  in  all, 
of  whom  twelve  were  women  —  left  the  harbor  of  New  York, 
on  board  the  United  States  steam-transport  "  Atlantic," 
arriving  at  Beaufort  on  the  gth.1  It  was  a  voyage  never 
to  be  forgotten.  The  enterprise  was  new  and  strange,  and 
it  was  not  easy  to  predict  its  future.  Success  or  defeat 
might  be  in  store  for  us ;  and  we  could  only  trust  in  God 

1  The  names  of  the  superintendents  and  teachers  are  given  in  the  "  Rebel- 
lion Record,"  iv.  227,  228. 


92  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

that  our  strength  might  be  equal  to  our  responsibilities. 
As  the  colonists  approached  the  shores  of  South  Carolina, 
I  addressed  them,  telling  them  the  little  I  had  learned  of 
their  duties,  enjoining  patience  and  humanity,  and  im- 
pressing on  them  the  greatness  of  their  work,  the  results 
of  which  were  to  cheer  or  dishearten  good  men,  and  to 
settle,  perhaps,  one  way  or  the  other,  the  social  problem 
of  the  age,  —  assuring  them  that  never  did  a  vessel  bear  a 
colony  on  a  nobler  mission,  not  even  the  "Mayflower" 
when  she  bore  the  Pilgrims  to  Plymouth ;  that  it  would  be 
a  poorly  written  history  which  should  omit  their  individual 
names  ;  and  that  if  faithful  to  their  trust,  there  would  come 
to  them  the  highest  of  all  recognitions  ever  accorded  to 
angels  or  to  men,  in  this  life  or  the  next,  —  "  Inasmuch  as 
ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  Me." 

This  first  delegation  of  superintendents  and  teachers 
was  distributed  during  the  first  fortnight  after  their  arrival 
at  Beaufort,  and  at  its  close  they  had  all  reached  their 
appointed  posts.  They  took  their  quarters  in  the  deserted 
houses  of  the  planters,  who  had  all  left  on  the  arrival  of 
our  army,  —  only  four  white  men,  citizens  of  South  Caro- 
lina, remaining,  and  none  of  those  being  slaveholders 
except  one,  who  had  only  two  or  three  slaves.  Our  ope- 
rations were  therefore  not  interfered  with  by  landed  pro- 
prietors who  were  loyal,  or  pretended  to  be  so.  The  ne- 
groes had  in  the  mean  time  been  without  persons  to  guide 
and  care  for  them,  and  had  been  exposed  to  the  careless 
and  conflicting  talk  of  soldiers  who  chanced  to  meet  them. 
They  were  also  brought  in  connection  with  some  employes 
of  the  government,  engaged  in  the  collection  of  cotton 
found  upon  the  plantations,  —  none  of  whom  were  doing 
anything  for  their  education,  and  most  of  whom  were  in 
favor  of  leasing  the  plantations  and  the  negroes  upon 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  93 

them  as  adscripti  glebcz,  looking  forward  to  the  return  of 
them  to  their  masters  at  the  close  of  the  war.  The  negroes 
themselves  were  uncertain  as  to  the  intentions  of  the  Yan- 
kees, and  were  wondering  at  the  "  confusion,"  as  they  called 
it.  They  were  beginning  to  plant  corn  in  their  patches, 
but  were  disinclined  to  plant  cotton,  regarding  it  as  a  badge 
of  servitude.  No  schools  had  been  opened,  except  one  at 
Beaufort,  which  had  been  kept  a  few  weeks  by  two  freed- 
men,  — one  bearing  the  name  of  John  Milton,  —  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Peck. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  detail  the  obstacles  we  met  with, 
one  after  another  overcome ;  the  calumnies  and  even  per- 
sonal violence  to  which  we  were  subjected.  These  things 
occurred  at  an  early  period  of  our  struggle,  when  the 
nation  was  groping  its  way  to  light,  and  are  not  likely  to 
occur  again.  Let  unworthy  men  sleep  in  the  oblivion  they 
'deserve,  and  let  others  of  better  natures,  who  were  then 
blind  but  now  see,  not  be  taunted  with  their  inconsiderate 
acts.  The  nickname  of  "  Gideonites,"  applied  to  the  colo- 
nists, may,  however,  be  fitly  remembered.  It  may  now 
justly  claim  rank  with  the  honored  titles  of  Puritan  and 
Methodist.  The  higher  officers  of  the  army  were  uniformly 
respectful  and  disposed  to  co-operation.  Our  most  im- 
portant operations  were  in  the  district  under  the  command 
of  Brigadier-General  Isaac  I.  Stevens,  an  officer  whose  con- 
victions were  not  supposed  to  be  favorable  to  the  enterprise, 
and  who,  during  the  political  contest  of  1860,  had  been  the 
chairman  of  the  National  Breckinridge  Committee.  But 
such  was  his  honor  as  a  gentleman,  and  his  sense  of  the 
duty  of  subordination  to  the  wishes  of  the  government,  that 
his  personal  courtesies  and  official  aid  were  never  wanting. 
He  received  his  mortal  wound  at  Chantilly,  Virginia,  on 
the'  first  of  September  following,  and  a  braver  and  abler 
officer  has  not  fallen  in  the  service. 


94 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


Notwithstanding  our  work  was  begun  six  weeks  too 
late,  and  other  hindrances  occurred,  detailed  in  my  second 
report,  some  eight  thousand  acres  of  esculents  (a  fair  sup- 
ply of  food)  and  some  four  thousand  five  hundred  acres  of 
cotton  (after  a  deduction  for  over-estimates)  were  planted. 
This  was  done  upon  one  hundred  and  eighty-nine  planta- 
tions, on  which  were  nine  thousand  and  fifty  people,  of 
whom  four  thousand  four  hundred  and  twenty-nine  were 
field-hands  (made  up  of  men,  women,  and  children),  and 
equivalent,  in  the  usual  classification  and  estimate  of  the 
productive  capacity  of  laborers,  to  three  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  five  and  one-half  full  hands.  The  cotton- 
crop  produced  will  not  exceed  sixty-five  thousand  pounds 
of  ginned  cotton.  Work  enough  was  done  to  have  pro- 
duced five  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  ordinary  times; 
but  the  immaturity  of  the  pod,  resulting  from  the  lateness 
of  the  planting,  exposed  it  to  the  ravages  of  the  frost  and* 
the  worm.  Troops  being  ordered  north,  after  the  disasters 
of  the  Peninsular  campaign,  Edisto  was  evacuated  in  the 
middle  of  July,  —  and  thus  one  thousand  acres  of  esculents 
and  nearly  seven  hundred  acres  of  cotton,  the  cultivation 
of  which  had  been  finished,  were  abandoned.  In  the 
autumn,  Major-General  Mitchell  made  requisition  for  forty 
tons  of  corn-fodder  and  seventy-eight  thousand  pounds  of 
corn  in  the  ear  for  army-forage.  These  are  but  some  of 
the  adverse  influences  to  which  the  agricultural  operations 
were  subjected. 

It  is  fitting  here  that  I  should  bear  my  testimony  to  the 
superintendents  and  teachers  commissioned  by  the  associa- 
tions. There  was  as  high  a  purpose  and  devotion  among 
them  as  in  any  colony  that  ever  went  forth  to  bear  the 
evangel  of  civilization.  Among  them  were  some  of  the 
choicest  young  men  of  New  England,  fresh  from  Harvard, 
Yale,  and  Brown,  from  the  divinity-schools  of  Andover 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  95 

and  Cambridge,  —  men  of  practical  talent  and  experience. 
There  were  some  of  whom  the  world  was  scarce  worthy, 
and  to  whom,  whether  they  are  among  the  living  or  the 
dead,  I  delight  to  pay  the  tribute  of  my  respect  and 
admiration. 


In  concluding  his  work  on  the  Sea  Islands,  Mr.  Pierce  made  the 
following  report,  under  date  of  Port  Royal,  June  2,  1862,  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Chase  :  — 

Upon  the  transfer  of  the  supervision  of  affairs  at  Port 
Royal  from  the  Treasury  to  the  War  Department,  a  sum- 
mary of  the  results  of  this  agency  may  be  expected  by 
you;  and  therefore  this  report  is  transmitted. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  superintendents,  the  plantations 
were  generally  unsupplied  with  tools,  even  hoes,  —  those 
on  hand  being  the  tools  used  last  year,  and  a  few  found  in 
the  shops  at  Beaufort.  Some  three  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  plows,  hoes,  and  other  implements  and  seeds  were  in- 
tended to  be  sent  with  the  superintendents.  The  negroes 
had  begun  to  plant  corn  and  potatoes  in  their  own  patches, 
and  in  some  cases  had  also  begun  to  prepare  a  field  of 
corn  for  the  plantation.  No  land,  however,  had  been  pre- 
pared for  cotton,  and  the  negroes  were  strongly  indisposed 
to  its  culture.  They  were  willing  to  raise  corn,  because  it 
was  necessary  for  food ;  but  they  saw  no  such  necessity 
for  cotton,  and  distrusted  promises  of  payment  for  cultivat- 
ing it:  it  had  enriched  the  masters,  but  had  not  fed  them. 
Moreover,  soldiers  passing  over  the  plantations  had  told 
them  in  careless  speech  that  they  were  not  to  plant  cotton. 
As  this,  however,  was  a  social  experiment  in  which  imme- 
diate industrial  results  were  expected,  it  seemed  important 
that  all  former  modes  of  culture  should  be  kept  up,  and 
those  products  not  neglected  for  which  the  district  is  best 


96         THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL. 

adapted,  and  which,  in  time  of  peace,  should  come  from  it. 
Besides,  when  a  people  are  passing  through  the  most 
radical  of  all  changes,  prudence  requires  that  all  old  habits 
and  modes  not  inconsistent  with  the  new  condition  should 
be  conserved.  Particularly  did  it  seem  desirable  th^t  the 
enemies  of  free  labor  in  either  hemisphere  should  not  be 
permitted  to  say  exultingly,  upon  the  view  of  a  single  sea- 
son's experiment  here,  that  a  product  so  important  to  trade 
and  human  comfort  could  not  be  cultivated  without  the 
forced,  unintelligent,  and  unpaid  labor  of  slaves.  There- 
fore no  inconsiderable  effort  was  made  to  disabuse  the 
laborers  of  their  strong  prejudice  on  this  point,  and  to  con- 
vince them  that  labor  on  cotton  was  honorable,  remunera- 
tive, and  necessary  to  enable  them  to  buy  clothing  and 
the  fitting  comforts  they  desired.  Such  effort  was  not 
made  in  vain ;  and  its  necessity  would  in  the  main  have 
been  dispensed  with  if  we  had  received  in  the  beginning 
the  money  to  pay  for  the  labor  required,  and  the  proper 
clothing  and  food  to  meet  the  just  wants  and  expectations 
of  the  laborers. 

At  the  same  time,  the  importance  of  raising  an  adequate 
supply  of  provisions  was  enjoined,  and  with  entire  success. 
On  this  point  there  was  no  trouble.  The  amount  of  these 
planted  is  equal  to  that  of  last  year  in  proportion  to  the 
people  to  be  supplied,  and  probably  exceeds  it.  The  pri- 
vate patches  are  far  larger  than  ever  before ;  and  as  these 
had  been  begun  before  we  arrived,  we  were  unable  to  make 
them  equal  on  the  different  plantations.  They  alone  in  a 
fair  season,  and  if  harvested  in  peace,  would  probably  pre- 
vent any  famine.  On  the  whole,  it  is  quite  certain  that 
without  the  system  here  put  in  operation  the  mass  of  the 
laborers,  if  left  to  themselves  and  properly  protected  from 
depredations  and  demoralization  by  white  men,  would  have 
raised  on  their  private  patches  corn  and  potatoes  sufficient 


THE   FREEDMEN  AT   PORT   ROYAL.  97 

for  their  food ;  though  without  the  incentives  and  moral 
inspirations  applied  by  this  system,  they  would  have  raised 
no  cotton,  and  had  no  exportable  crop,  and  there  might, 
under  the  uncertainties  of  the  present  condition  of  things, 
have  been  a  failure  of  a  surplus  of  corn  necessary  for  cat- 
tle and  contingencies,  and  for  the  purchase  of  needed 
comforts.  There  is  no  disposition  to  claim  for  the  move- 
ment here  first  initiated  that  it  is  the  only  one  by  which 
the  people  of  this  race  can  be  raised  from  the  old  to  the 
new  condition,  provided  equal  opportunities  and  an  equal 
period  for  development  are  accorded  to  them  as  to  com- 
munities of  the  white  race;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  the 
only  one  practicable  where  immediate  material  and  moral 
results  were  to  be  reached,  and  upon  a  territory  under 
military  occupation. 

The  order  of  Major-General  Hunter  compelling  the 
able-bodied  men  to  go  to  Hilton  Head  on  May  12,  where 
a  proportion  of  them  still  remain  against  their  will,  pro- 
duced apprehension  among  these  people  as  to  our  inten- 
tions in  relation  to  them,  and  disturbed  the  work  on  the 
plantations,  the  laboring  force  of  which  was  thereby  greatly 
reduced,  —  leaving  the  women,  and  children  over  twelve 
years  of  age,  as  the  main  reliance  on  many  plantations.  I 
entered  a  protest  against  the  order  and  its  harsh  execution, 
and  against  the  retention  of  any  not  disposed  to  enlist; 
but  the  civil  being  subordinate  to  military  power,  no  further 
action  could  be  taken. 

The  cases  of  discipline  for  idleness  have  been  very  few, 
and  cannot  have  exceeded,  if  they  have  equalled,  forty  on 
the  islands.  These  have  been  reported  to  the  military 
authorities,  and  been  acted  upon  by  them.  Most  trouble 
has  been  experienced  upon  plantations  lying  exposed  to  the 
camps  and  vessels  both  of  the  navy  and  sutlers,  —  as  on 
Hilton  Head  Island  and  on  St.  Helena  near  Bay  Point, 

7 


98  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

where  there  were  considerable  discontent  and  insubordina- 
tion induced  by  visits  from  the  vessels  and  camps.  This 
trouble,  it  is  hoped,  will  hereafter  be  removed  by  a  more 
effective  police  system  than  has  yet  been  applied. 

It  is  not  pretended  that  many  of  these  laborers  could 
not  have  done  more  than  they  have  done,  or  that  in  per- 
sistent application  they  are  the  equals  of  races  living  in 
colder  and  more  bracing  latitudes.  They  generally  went 
to  their  work  quite  early  in  the  morning,  and  returned  at 
noon,  often  earlier,  —  working,  however,  industriously 
while  they  were  in  the  field.  Late  in  the  afternoon,  they 
worked  upon  their  private  patches.  As  they  were  making 
themselves  self-supporting  by  the  amount  of  work  which 
could  be  obtained  from  them  without  discipline,  it  was 
thought  advisable  under  the  present  condition  of  things 
not  to  exact  more,  but  to  await  the  full  effect  of  moral  and 
material  inspirations,  which  can  in  time  be  applied.  What 
has,  nevertheless,  been  accomplished  with  these  obstruc- 
tions, with  all  the  uncertainties  incident  to  a  state  of  war, 
and  with  our  own  want  of  personal  familiarity  at  first  with 
the  individual  laborers  themselves,  gives  the  best  reason  to 
believe  that  under  the  guidance  and  with  the  help  of  the 
fugitive  masters,  had  they  been  so  disposed,  these  people 
might  have  made  their  way  from  bondage  and  its  enforced 
labor  to  freedom  and  its  voluntary  and  compensated  labor 
without  any  essential  diminution  of  products  or  any  appre- 
ciable derangement  of  social  order.  In  this  as  in  all  things 
the  universe  is  so  ordered  that  the  most  beneficent  revolu- 
tions, which  too  often  cost  life  and  treasure,  may  be  accom- 
plished justly  and  in  peace  if  men  have  only  the  heart  to 
accept  them. 

It  is  most  pleasing  to  state,  that,  with  the  snjall  pay- 
ments for  labor  already  made,  those  also  for  the  collection 
of  cotton  being  nearly  completed ;  with  the  partial  rations 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  99 

on  some  islands  and  the  supplies  from  benevolent  sources 
on  others  ;  with  the  assistance  which  the  mules  have 
furnished  for  the  cultivation  of  the  crop,  the  general  kind- 
ness and  protecting  care  of  the  superintendents,  the  con- 
tributions of  clothing  forwarded  by  the  associations,  the 
schools  for  the  instruction  of  the  children  and  others  de- 
sirous to  learn,  —  with  these  and  other  favorable  influences 
confidence  in  the  government  has  been  inspired,  the 
laborers  are  working  cheerfully,  and  they  now  present  to 
the  world  the  example  of  a  well-behaved  and  self-support- 
ing peasantry  of  which  their  country  has  no  reason  to  be 
ashamed. 

The  educational  labors  deserve  a  special  statement.  It 
is  to  be  regretted  that  more  teachers  had  not  been  pro- 
vided. The  labor  of  superintendence  at  the  beginning 
proved  so  onerous  that  several  originally  intended  to  be 
put  in  charge  of  schools  were  necessarily  assigned  for  the 
other  purpose.  Some  fifteen  persons  on  an  average  have 
been  specially  occupied  with  teaching;  .and  of  these  four 
were  women.  Others  having  Jess  superintendence  to  at- 
tend to  were  able  to  devote  considerable  time  to  teaching 
at  regular  hours.  Nearly  all  gave  some  attention  to  it, 
more  or  less  according  to  their  opportunity  and  their  apti- 
tude for  the  work. 

The  educational  statistics  are  incomplete,  only  a  part 
of  the  schools  having  been  open  for  two  months,  and  the 
others  having  been  opened  at  intervals  upon  the  arrival  of 
persons  designated  for  the  purpose.  At  present,  accord- 
ing to  the  reports,  twenty-five  hundred  persons  are  being 
taught  on  week  days,  of  whom  not  far  from  one  third  are 
adults  taught  when  their  work  is  done.  But  this  does  not 
complete  the  number  occasionally  taught  on  week  days 
and  in  the  Sunday-schools.  Humane  soldiers  have  also 
aided  the  work  of  instruction  in  the  case  of  their  servants 


100  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

and  others.  Three  thousand  persons  are  in  all  probability 
receiving  more  or  less  instruction  in  reading  on  these 
islands.  The  reports  state  that  very  many  are  now  so 
advanced  that  even  if  the  work  should  stop  here,  they 
would  still  learn  to  read  by  themselves  and  communicate 
the  knowledge  to  others. 

An  effort  has  been  made  to  promote  clean  and  health- 
ful habits.  To  that  end,  weekly  cleanings  of  quarters  were 
enjoined.  This  effort,  where  it  could  be  properly  made, 
met  with  reasonable  success.  The  negroes,  finding  that  we 
took  an  interest  in  their  welfare,  acceded  cordially,  and  in 
many  cases  their  diligence  in  this  respect  was  most  com- 
mendable. As  a  race,  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  they 
are  indisposed  to  cleanliness.  They  appear  to  practise  it 
as  much  as  white  people  under  the  same  circumstances. 
There  are  difficulties  to  obstruct  improvement  in  this  re- 
spect. There  has  been  a  scarcity  of  lime  and  (except  at 
too  high  prices)  of  soap.  Their  houses  are  too  small,  not 
affording  proper  apartments  for  storing  their  food,  and 
having  no  glass  windows ;  ^besides,  some  of  them  are  tene- 
ments unfit  for  beasts,  without  floor  or  chimneys.  One 
could  not  ask  the  occupants  to  clean  such  a  place.  But 
where  the  building  was  decent  or  reasonably  commodious, 
there  was  no  difficulty  in  securing  the  practice  of  this  vir- 
tue. Many  of  these  people  are  examples  of  tidiness,  and 
on  entering  their  houses  one  is  sometimes  witness  of  rather 
amusing  scenes,  where  a  mother  is  trying  the  effect  of 
beneficent  ablutions  on  the  heads  of  her  children. 

The  religious  welfare  of  these  people  has  not  been  ne- 
glected. The  churches,  which  were  closed  when  this  be- 
came a  seat  of  war,  have  been  re-opened.  Among  the 
superintendents  there  were  several  persons  of  clerical  edu- 
cation, who  have  led  in  public  ministrations.  The  larger 
part  of  them  are  persons  of  religious  experience  and  pro- 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  IQI 

fession,  who  on  the  Sabbath,  in  weekly  praise-meetings 
and  at  funerals,  have  labored  for  the  consolation  of  these 
humble  believers. 

These  people  have  been  assured  by  myself  that  if  they 
proved  themselves  worthy  by  their  industry,  good  order, 
and  sobriety,  they  should  be  protected  against  their  rebel 
masters.  It  would  be  wasted  toil  to  attempt  their  develop- 
ment without  such  assurances,  and  an  honorable  nature 
would  shrink  from  this  work  without  the  right  to  make 
them.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  imagine  any  rulers  now  or  in 
the  future,  who  will  ever  turn  their  backs  on  the  laborers 
who  have  been  received,  as  these  have  been,  into  the  ser- 
vice of  the  United  States. 

The  success  of  the  movement,  now  upon  its  third  month, 
has  exceeded  my  most  sanguine  expectations.  It  has  had 
its  peculiar  difficulties  ;  and  some  phases  at  times,  arising 
from  accidental  causes,  might,  on  a  partial  view,  invite 
doubt,  which  however  was  banished  at  once  by  a  general 
survey  of  what  had  been  done.  Already  the  high  treason 
of  South  Carolina  has  had  a  sublime  compensation,  and 
the  end  is  not  yet.  The  churches  are  filled  with  wor- 
shippers. No  master  now  stands  between  these  people 
and  the  words  which  the  Saviour  spoke  for  the  conso- 
lation of  all  peoples  and  all  generations.  The  gospel  is 
preached  in  fulness  and  purity  as  it  has  never  before  been 
preached  in  this  territory,  even  in  colonial  times.  The 
reading  of  the  English  language,  with  more  or  less  system, 
is  being  taught  to  thousands ;  so  that  whatever  military  or 
political  vicissitudes  may  be  in  store,  this  precious  know- 
ledge can  never  perish  from  among  them.  Ideas  and 
habits  have  been  planted,  under  the  growth  of  which 
these  people  are  to  be  fitted  for  the  responsibilities  of  citi- 
zenship, and  in  equal  degree  unfitted  for  any  restoration  to 
their  former  condition.  Modes  of  administration  have 


102  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

been  begun,  —  not  indeed  adapted  to  an  advanced  com- 
munity, but  just,  paternal,  and  developing  in  their  charac- 
ter. Industrial  results  have  been  reached  which  put  at  rest 
the  often  reiterated  assumption  that  this  territory  and  its 
products  can  be  cultivated  only  by  slaves.  A  social  prob- 
lem which  has  vexed  the  wisest  approaches  a  solution. 
The  capacity  of  a  race  and  the  possibility  of  lifting  it  to 
civilization  without  danger  or  disorder,  even  without  throw- 
ing away  the  present  generation  as  refuse,  are  being  de- 
termined ;  and  thus  the  way  is  preparing  by  which  the 
peace  to  follow  this  war  shall  be  made  perpetual. 

Finally,  it  would  seem  that  upon  this  narrow  theatre, 
and  in  these  troublous  times,  God  is  demonstrating  to 
those  who  would  mystify  his  plans  and  thwart  his  purposes 
that  in  the  councils  of  his  infinite  wisdom  he  has  predes- 
tined no  race,  not  even  the  African,  to  the  doom  of  eternal 
bondage. 

In  parting  with  the  interesting  people  who  have  been 
under  my  charge,  I  must  bear  testimony  to  their  uniform 
kindness  to  myself.  One  of  them  has  been  my  faithful 
guide  and  attendant,  doing  for  me  more  service  than  any 
white  man  could  render.  They  have  come,  even  after 
words  of  reproof  or  authority,  to  express  confidence  and 
good  resolves.  They  have  given  me  their  benedictions 
and  prayers,  and  I  should  be  ungrateful  indeed  ever  to 
forget  or  deny  them. 


Mr.  Pierce's  active  connection  with  the  administration  of  the 
Sea  Islands  ended  in  June,  1862,  by  a  transfer  of  the  work  from 
the  Treasury  to  the  War  Department.  Mr.  Chase,  by  authority 
from  Mr.  Stanton,  the  Secretary  of  War,  had  offered  Mr.  Pierce 
(April  n)  the  post  of  military  governor;  but  shortly  after,  dis- 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  103 

trusting  his  power  to  make  such  appointments,  which  had  been 
questioned  in  Congress,  Mr.  Stanton  withdrew  the  offer.  It  was 
then  decided  to  place  the  enterprise  in  the  charge  of  Brigadier- 
General  Rufus  Saxton,  and  Mr.  Pierce  was  offered  a  place  on  his 
staff,  with  the  rank  of  colonel.  He  declined  this  appointment, 
principally  for  the  reason  that  it  seemed  to  him  better  that  his 
successor  should  take  up  the  enterprise  unembarrassed  by  one 
who  had  planned  and  organized'  it.  Edward  W.  Hooper,  now 
Treasurer  of  Harvard  College,  who  had  been  confidentially  asso- 
ciated with  Mr.  Pierce  since  the  beginning  of  March,  remained 
with  General  Saxton,  taking  a  commission  with  the  rank  of  cap- 
tain. Mr.  Chase's  letters  to  Mr.  Pierce  —  one  official,  and  the 
other  personal  —  are  here  given  :  — 


TREASURY  DEPARTMENT, 
June  18,  1862. 

SIR,  —  The  Secretary  of  War  having  assumed  the  control  and 
direction  of  abandoned  plantations,  and  of  the  laborers  upon  them, 
in  States  declared  by  the  President  to  be  under  insurrectionary 
control,  the  connection  of  this  department  with  that  work  necessa- 
rily terminates.  Brigadier-General  R.  Saxton  has  been  charged  by 
the  Secretary  of  War  with  the  control  and  direction  of  abandoned 
property  and  the  laborers  in  the  district  in  which  you  have  been 
acting  as  Special  Agent  of  this  department.  Upon  his  arrival  at 
Port  Royal,  therefore,  your  charge  of  abandoned  estates  and  other 
property,  as  Special  Agent,  will  cease ;  and  you  will  transfer  to  him 
the  control  of  all  property  and  papers  in  your  custody,  except  such 
papers  as  may  be  necessary  to  the  settlement  of  your  accounts. 
These  you  will  forward  to  this  department.  You  will  give  to  Gen- 
eral Saxton  all  the  aid  in  your  power  in  assuming  charge  of  his 
responsible  trusts  ;  after  which  you  will  please  make  your  final  re- 
port in  person  at  Washington. 

While  transferring  to  another  department  the  control  of  the  im- 
portant work  in  which  you  have  been  engaged,  it  gives  me  pleasure 
to  express  to  you  my  entire  and  cordial  approval  of  your  action  as 
Special  Agent,  and  to  acknowledge  the  great  services  rendered  by 
you  to  the  department  and  the  country  in  the  performance  of  the 


104  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

duties  assigned  you.  The  ability,  energy,  and  fidelity  which  you 
brought  to  their  discharge  have  contributed  essentially  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  work  hitherto ;  and  I  regret  the  necessity  which  severs 
your  connection  with  it  now. 

Yours  truly, 

S.  P.  CHASE, 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
EDWARD  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 

TREASURY  DEPARTMENT, 
June  18,  1862. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  have  to-day  signed  regretfully  the 
formal  letter  which  terminates  your  official  connection  with  me.  I 
must  add  to  that  official  approval  my  personal  thanks  for  your  great 
and  most  valuable  services  to  a  cause  in  which  I  take  a  deep  per- 
sonal concern. 

Your  refusal  to  be  further  connected  with  the  work  under  the 
new  auspices  disappointed  me  exceedingly.  I  expected  your 
consent,  and  expected  from  that  consent  certainty  of  continued 
success.  But  I  had  no  right  to  claim  your  continuance  in  that 
field  of  labor,  though  I  felt,  as  I  said,  that  your  refusal  was  a  mis- 
take. You  did  not  accept  originally  for  more  than  three  months, 
and  you  accepted  at  considerable  personal  sacrifice ;  at  even 
greater,  perhaps,  you  have  continued  working  far  beyond  the  time 
originally  limited.  You  have  more  than  done  all  you  promised. 
Of  course,  I  cannot  ask  for  more. 

Still,  on  your  own  account  and  as  a  personal  gratification  to  me 
your  friend,  I  cannot  help  regretting  you  did  not  see  your  duty 
otherwise.  It  would  have  been  so  pleasant  to  me  to  have  it  known 
by  everybody  that  your  worth  was  recognized  by  an  appointment 
hardly  ever  given  under  like  circumstances  ;  to  have  it  understood 
by  all  the  friends  of  the  work  that  it  was  as  secure  under  Colonel 
Pierce  as  it  had  been  under  Special  Agent  Pierce  ;  to  feel  that  the 
colonelcy  itself  was  but  temporary,  and  that  in  a  little  while,  when 
your  position  had  become  as  well  established  with  Secretary 
Stanton  as  with  me,  General  Saxton  would  be  relieved  and  you 
would  take  his  place ;  to  believe  that  beyond  the  Islands  your 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  105 

position  would  contribute  largely  to  tha  cause  of  enfranchisement 
throughout  the  realm  of  rebeldom.  But  I  must  be  content,  or 
as  nearly  content  as  disappointment  will  permit. 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

S.  P.  CHASE. 
EDWARD  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 


The  Atlantic  Monthly  article  is  here  again  resumed. 

On  the  first  of  July,  1862,  the  administration  of  affairs  at 
Port  Royal  having  been  transferred  from  the  Treasury  to 
the  War  Department,  the  charge  of  the  freedmen  passed 
into  the  hands  of  General  Saxton,  a  native  of  Massachu- 
setts, who  in  childhood  had  breathed  the  free  air  of  the 
valley  of  the  Connecticut,  a  man  of  sincere  and  humane 
nature ;  and  under  his  wise  and  benevolent  care  they  still 
remain.  The  Sea  Islands,  and  also  Fernandina  and  St. 
Augustine  in  Florida,  are  within  our  lines  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  South,  and  some  sixteen  or  eighteen  thousand 
negroes  are  supposed  to  be  under  his  jurisdiction. 

The  negroes  of  the  Sea  Islands,  when  found  by  us,  had 
become  an  abject  race,  more  docile  and  submissive  than 
those  of  any  other  locality.  The  native  African  was  of  a 
fierce  and  mettlesome  temper,  sullen  and  untamable.  The 
master  was  obliged  to  abate  something  of  the  usual  rigor 
in  dealing  with  the  imported  slaves.  A  tax-commissioner,1 
now  at  Port  Royal,  and  formerly  a  resident  of  South  Caro- 
lina, told  me  that  a  native  African  belonging  to  his  father, 
though  a  faithful  man,  would  perpetually  insist  on  doing 
his  work  in  his  own  way ;  and  being  asked  the  threaten- 
ing question,  "  A'n't  you  going  to  mind?"  would  answer, 
with  spirit,  "  No,  a'n't  gwine  to !  "  and  the  master  desist- 
ed. Severe  discipline  drove  the  natives  to  the  wilderness, 

1  Dr.  William  H.  Brisbane. 


106  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

or  involved  a  mutilation  of  person  which  destroyed  their 
value  for  proprietary  purposes.  In  1816,  eight  hundred 
of  these  refugees  were  living  free  in  the  swamps  and  ever- 
glades of  Florida.  There  the  ancestors  of  some  of  them 
had  lived  ever  since  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, rearing  families,  carrying  on  farms,  and  raising  cattle. 
They  had  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  fit  to  bear  arms,  led 
by  chiefs  brave  and  skilful.  The  story  of  the  Exiles  of 
Florida  is  one  of  painful  interest.  The  testimony  of  offi- 
cers of  the  army  who  served  against  them  is  that  they  were 
more  dangerous  enemies  than  the  Indians,  fighting  the 
most  skilfully  and  standing  the  longest.  The  tax-commis- 
sioner before  referred  to,  who  was  a  resident  of  Charleston 
during  the  trial  and  execution  of  the  confederates  of  Den- 
mark Vesey,  relates  that  one  of  the  native  Africans,  when 
called  to  answer  to  the  charge  against  him,  haughtily  re- 
sponded, "  I  was  a  prince  in  my  country,  and  have  as 
much  right  to  be  free  as  you !  "  The  Carolinians  were  so 
awe-struck  by  his  defiance  that  they  transported  him. 
Another,  at  the  execution,  turned  indignantly  to  a  com- 
rade about  to  speak,  and  said,  "  Die  silent,  as  I  do  ! " 
and  the  man  hushed.  The  early  newspapers  of  Georgia 
recount  the  disturbances  on  the  plantations  occasioned 
by  these  native  Africans,  and  even  by  their  children, 
being  not  until  the  third  generation  reduced  to  obedient 
slaves. 

Nowhere  has  the  deterioration  of  the  negroes  from  their 
native  manhood  been  carried  so  far  as  on  these  Sea  Islands, 
—  a  deterioration  due  to  their  isolation  from  the  excite- 
ments of  more  populous  districts,  the  constant  surveil- 
lance of  the  overseers,  and  their  intermarriage  with  one 
another,  involving  a  physical  degeneracy  with  which  inex- 
orable Nature  punishes  disobedience  to  her  laws.  The 
population  with  its  natural  increase  was  sufficient  for  the 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


lO/ 


cultivation  of  the  soil  under  existing  modes,  and  therefore 
no  fresh  blood  was  admitted,  such  as  is  found  pouring  from 
the  border  States  into  the  sugar  and  cotton  regions  of  the 
Southwest.  This  unmanning  and  depravation  of  the  na- 
tive character  had  been  carried  so  far  that  on  my  first  ex- 
ploration, in  January,  1862,  I  was  obliged  to  confess  the 
existence  of  a  general  disinclination  to  military  service  on 
the  part  of  the  negroes;  though  it  is  true  that  even  then 
instances  of  courage  and  adventure  appeared,  which  indi- 
cated that  the  more  manly  feeling  was  only  latent,  to  be 
developed  under  the  inspiration  of  events.  And  so,  let  us 
rejoice,  it  has  been.  One  may  think  himself  wise,  as  he 
notes  the  docility  of  a  subject  race;  but  in  vain  will  he 
attempt  to  study  it  until  the  burden  is  lifted.  The  slave 
is  unknown  to  all,  even  to  himself,  while  the  bondage  lasts. 
Nature  is  ever  a  kind  mother.  She  soothes  us  with  her 
deceits,  —  not  in  surgery  alone,  when  the  sufferer,  else 
writhing  in  pain,  is  transported  with  sweet  delirium  ;  but 
she  withholds  from  the  spirit  the  sight  of  her  divinity 
until  her  opportunity  has  come.  Not  even  De  Tocqueville 
or  Olmsted,  much  less  the  master,  can  measure  the  ca- 
pacities and  possibilities  of  the  slave  until  the  slave  him- 
self is  transmuted  to  a  man. 

In  my  recent  visit  to  Port  Royal,  extending  from  March 
25  to  April  10,  1863,  I  noted  some  features  in  the  present 
condition  of  the  freedmen  bearing  directly  on  the  solution 
of  the  social  problem  which  seem  to  deserve  consideration. 

And,  first,  as  to  education.  There  are  more  than  thirty 
schools  in  the  territory,  conducted  by  as  many  as  forty  or 
forty-five  teachers,  who  are  commissioned  by  the  three 
associations  in  Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  and 
by  the  American  Missionary  Association.  They  have  an 
average  attendance  of  two  thousand  pupils,  and  are  more 


108  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

or  less  frequented  by  an  additional  thousand.  The  ages 
of  the  scholars  range  in  the  main  from  eight  to  twelve 
years.  They  did  not  know  even  their  letters  prior  to  a 
year  ago 'last  March,  except  those  who  were  being  taught 
in  the  single  school  at  Beaufort  already  referred  to,  which 
had  been  going  on  for  a  few  weeks.  Very  many  did  not 
have  the  opportunity  for  instruction  till  weeks  and  even 
months  after.  During  the  spring  and  summer  of  1862 
there  were  not  more  than  a  dozen  schools,  and  these  were 
much  interrupted  by  the  heat,  and  by  the  necessity  of 
assigning  at  times  some  of  the  teachers  to  act  as  superin- 
tendents. Teachers  came  for  a  limited  time,  and  upon  its 
expiration,  or  for  other  cause,  returned  home,  leaving  the 
schools  to  be  broken  up.  It  was  not  until  October  or 
November  that  the  educational  arrangements  were  really 
effected  ;  and  they  are  still  but  imperfectly  organized.  In 
some  localities  there  is  as  yet  no  teacher,  and  this  because 
the  associations  have  not  had  the  funds  wherewith  to  pro- 
vide one. 

I  visited  ten  of  the  schools,  and  conversed  with  the 
teachers  of  others.  There  were,  it  may  be  noted,  some 
mixed  bloods  in  the  schools  of  the  town  of  Beaufort,  — 
ten  in  a  school  of  ninety,  thirteen  in  another  of  sixty-four, 
and  twenty  in  another  of  seventy.  In  the  schools  on 
the  plantations  there  were  never  more  than  half-a-dozen 
in  one  school,  in  some  cases  but  two  or  three,  and  in 
others  none. 

The  advanced  classes  were  reading  simple  stories  and 
didactic  passages  in  the  ordinary  school-books,  —  as 
Hillard's  Second  Primary  Reader,  Willson's  Second  Reader, 
and  others  of  similar  grade.  Those  who  had  enjoyed  a 
briefer  period  of  instruction  were  reading  short  sentences, 
or  learning  the  alphabet.  In  several  of  the  schools  a  class 
was  engaged  on  an  elementary  lesson  in  arithmetic,  geog- 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  109 

raphy,  or  writing.  The  eagerness  for  knowledge  and  the 
facility  of  acquisition  displayed  in  the  beginning  had  not 
abated. 

On  the  25th  of  March  I  visited  a  school  at  the  Central 
Baptist  Church  on  St.  Helena  Island,  built  in  1855,  shaded 
by  lofty  live-oak  trees,  with  the  long,  pendulous  moss  every- 
where hanging  from  their  wide-spreading  branches,  and 
surrounded  by  the  gravestones  of  the  former  proprietors, 
which  bear  the  ever-recurring  names  of  Fripp  and  Chaplin. 
This  school,  numbering  one  hundred  and  forty-five,  was 
opened  in  September  last,  but  many  of  the  pupils  had  re- 
ceived some  instruction  before.  Like  most  of  the  schools 
on  the  plantations,  it  opened  at  noon  and  closed  at  three 
o'clock,  —  leaving  the  forenoon  for  the  children  to  work 
in  the  field,  or  to  perform  other  service  in  which  they 
could  be  useful.  At  the  close  of  the  exercises  the  scholars 
recited  in  concert  the  Psalm,  ';  The  Lord  is  my  shepherd," 
requiring  prompting  at  the  beginning  of  some  of  the 
verses.  They  sang  with  much  spirit  hymns  which  had 
been  taught  them  by  the  teachers,  as,  — 

"  My  country,  't  is  of  thee, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty ;  " 

also,  — 

"  Sound  the  loud  timbrel ;  " 

also,  Whittier's  new  song,  written  expressly  for  this  school, 
the  closing  stanzas  of  which  are,  — 

"  Oh,  none  in  all  the  world  before 

Were  ever  glad  as  wel 
We  're  free  on  Carolina's  shore, 
We  're  all  at  home  and  free  1 

"  The  very  oaks  are  greener  clad, 

The  waters  brighter  smile  ; 
Oh,  never  shone  a  day  so  glad 
On  sweet  St.  Helen's  Isle !  " 


HO        THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL. 

Never  has  that  pure  Muse,  which  has  sung  only  of 
truth  and  right,  as  the  highest  beauty  and  noblest  art,  been 
consecrated  to  a  better  service  than  to  write  the  songs  of 
praise  for  these  little  children,  chattels  no  longer,  whom 
the  Saviour,  were  he  now  to  walk  on  earth,  would  bless  as 
his  own. 

One  of  the  teachers  of  this  school  is  an  accomplished 
woman  from  Philadelphia.1  Another  is  from  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  where  she  had  prepared  herself  for  this 
work  by  benevolent  labors  in  teaching  poor  children.2 
The  third  is  a  young  woman  of  African  descent,  of  olive 
complexion,  finely  cultured,  and  attuned  to  all  beautiful 
sympathies,  of  gentle  address,  and,  what  was  specially 
noticeable,  not  possessed  with  an  overwrought  conscious- 
ness of  her  race.3  She  had  read  the  best  books,  and  natu- 
rally and  gracefully  enriched  her  conversation  with  them. 
She  had  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Whittier ;  had  been  a 
pupil  in  the  Grammar  School  of  Salem,  then  in  the  State 
Normal  School  in  that  city,  then  a  teacher  in  one  of  the 
schools  for  white  children,  where  she  had  received  only  the 
kindest  treatment  both  from  the  pupils  and  their  parents, 
—  and  let  this  be  spoken  to  the  honor  of  that  ancient 
town.  She  had  refused  a  residence  in  Europe,  where  a 
better  social  life  and  less  unpleasant  discrimination  awaited 
her,  for  she  would  not  dissever  herself  from  the  fortunes 
of  her  people;  and  now,  not  with  a  superficial  sentiment, 
but  with  a  profound  purpose,  she  devotes  herself  to  their 
elevation. 

At  Coffin  Point,  on  St.  Helena  Island,  I  visited  a  school 
kept  by  a  young  woman  from  the  town  of  Milton,  Massa- 

1  Miss  Laura  M.  Towne,  who  with  her  associate,  Miss  Murray,  have  car- 
ried on  a  school  for  the  colored  people  on  the  island  continuously  from  1862 
to  the  present  date  (1896). 

2  Miss  Ellen  Murray.  «  Mrs.  Charlotte  Forten,  now  Mrs.  Grimke. 


THE   FREEDMEN  AT   PORT   ROYAL.  m 

chusetts,1  "  the  child  of  parents  passed  into  the  skies," 
whose  lives  have  both  been  written  for  the  edification  of 
the  Christian  world.  She  teaches  two  schools,  at  different 
hours  in  the  afternoon,  and  with  different  scholars  in  each. 
Being  questioned  as  to  the  subjects  of  the  lessons,  the 
scholars  answered  intelligently.  They  recited  the  twos 
of  the  multiplication- table,  explained  numeral  letters  and 
figures  on  the  blackboard,  and  wrote  letters  and  figures  on 
slates.  Another  teacher  in  the  adjoining  district,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Harvard,  and  the  son  of  a  well-known  Unitarian 
clergyman  of  Providence  (Rev.  Edward  B.  Hall,  D.  D.), 
Rhode  Island,  has  two  schools,  in  one  of  which  a  class  of 
three  pupils  was  about  finishing  Ellsworth's  First  Progres- 
sive Reader;  and  another,  of  seven  pupils,  had  just  fin- 
ished Hillard's  Second  Primary  Reader.  Another  teacher, 
from  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  on  the  same  island,  num- 
bers one  hundred  pupils  in  his  two  schools.  He  exercises 
a  class  in  elocution,  requiring  the  same  sentence  to  be  re- 
peated with  different  tones  and  inflections ;  and  one  could 
not  but  remark  the  excellent  imitations. 

In  a  school  at  St.  Helena  village,  where  were  collected 
the  Edisto  refugees,  ninety-two  pupils  were  present  when 
I  visited  it.  Two  ladies  were  engaged  in  teaching,  assisted 
by  Ned  Loyd  White,  a  colored  man,  who  had  picked  up 
clandestinely  a  knowledge  of  reading  while  still  a  slave. 
One  class  of  boys  and  another  of  girls  read  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  St.  John,  having  begun  this  Gospel  and  gone 
thus  far.  They  stumbled  a  little  on  words  like  "  unright- 
eousness "  and  "  circumcision;  "  otherwise  they  got  along 
very  well.  When  the  Edisto  refugees  were  brought  here, 
in  July,  1862,  Ned,  who  is  about  forty  or  forty-five  years 
old,  and  Uncle  Cyrus,  a  man  of  seventy,  who  also  could 
read,  gathered  one  hundred  and  fifty  children  into  two 
1  Miss  Harriet  Ware. 


112  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT  ROYAL. 

schools,  and  taught  them  as  best  they  could  for  five  months, 
until  teachers  were  provided  by  the  societies. 

On  the  8th  of  April  I  visited  a  school  on  Ladies  Island, 
kept  in  a  small  church  on  the  Eustis  estate,  and  taught  by 
a  young  woman  from  Kingston,  Massachusetts.  She  had 
manifested  much  persistence  in  going  to  this  field;  went 
with  the  first  delegation,  and  still  keeps  the  school  which 
she  opened  in  March,  1862.  She  had  taught  the  pupils 
the^r  letters.  Sixty-six  were  present  on  the  day  of  my 
visit.  A  class  of  ten  pupils  read  the  story  which  begins 
on  page  86  of  Hillard's  Second  Primary  Reader.  One 
girl,  Elsie,  a  full  black,  and  rather  ungainly  withal,  read 
so  rapidly  that  she  had  to  be  checked,  —  the  only  case  of 
such  fast  reading  that  I  found.  The  teacher  was  instruct- 
ing her  pupils  in  some  dates  and  facts  which  have  had 
much  to  do  with  our  history.  The  questions  and  answers, 
in  which  all  the  pupils  joined,  were  these  :  — 

"Where  were  slaves  first  brought  to  in  this  country?" 

"Virginia." 

"When?" 

"  1620." 

"Who  brought  them?" 

"  Dutchmen." 

"  Who  came  the  same  year  to  Plymouth,  Massachusetts  ?  " 

"  Pilgrims." 

"  Did  they  bring  slaves?  " 

"  No." 

A  teacher  in  Beaufort  put  these  questions,  to  which  an- 
swers were  given  in  a  loud  tone  by  the  whole  school :  — 

"What  country  do  you  live  in?" 

"  United  States." 

"What  State?" 

"  South  Carolina." 

"What  island?" 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  113 

"  Port  Royal." 

"  What  town?" 

"Beaufort" 

"  Who  is  your  Governor?  " 

"  General  Saxton." 

"Who  is  your  President?" 

"  Abraham  Lincoln." 

"  What  has  he  done  for  you  ?  " 

"  He  's  freed  us." 

There  were  four  schools  in  the  town  of  Beaufort,  all 
which  I  visited,  each  having  an  average  attendance  of  from 
sixty  to  ninety  pupils,  and  each  provided  with  two  teach- 
ers. In  some  of  them  writing  was  taught.  But  it  is  un- 
necessary to  describe  them,  as  they  were  very  much  like 
the  others.  There  is,  besides,  at  Beaufort  an  industrial 
school,  which  meets  two  afternoons  in  a  week,  and  is 
conducted  by  a  lady  from  New  York,  with  some  dozen 
ladies  to  assist  her.  There  were  present,  the  afternoon 
I  visited  it,  one  hundred  and  thirteen  girls  from  six  to 
twenty  years  of  age,  all  plying  the  needle,  —  some  with 
pieces  of  patchwork,  and  others  with  aprons,  pillow-cases, 
or  handkerchiefs. 

Though  I  'have  never  served  on  a  school-committee,  I 
accepted  invitations  to  address  these  schools  on  my  visits, 
and  particularly  plied  the  pupils  with  questions,  so  as  to 
catch  the  tone  of  their  minds  ;  and  I  have  rarely  heard 
children  answer  with  more  readiness  and  spirit.  We  had  a 
dialogue  substantially  as  follows  :  — 

"  Children,  what  are  you  going  to  do  when  you  grow 
up  ?" 

"  Going  to  work,  Sir." 

"  On  what  ?  " 

"  Cotton  and  corn,  Sir." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  corn?" 

8 


THE  FREEDMEN  AT  PORT  ROYAL- 


"  Eat  it." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  cotton?  " 

"  Sell  it." 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  with  the  money  you  get 

for  it  ?  " 

One  boy  answered  in  advance  of  the  others,  — 

"  Put  it  in  my  pocket,  Sir." 

"  That  won't  do.     What  's  better  than  that  ?  " 

"  Buy  clothes,  Sir." 

"  What  else  will  you  buy?  " 

"  Shoes,  Sir." 

"  What  else  are  you  going  to  do  with  your  money?  " 

There  was  some  hesitation  at  this  point.  Then  the  ques- 
tion was  put,  — 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  Sundays?  " 

"  Going  to  meeting." 

"  What  are  you  going  to  do  there?  " 

"  Going  to  sing." 

"What  else?" 

"  Hear  the  parson." 

"  Who  's  going  to  pay  him  ?  " 

One  boy  said,  "  Government  pays  him  ;  "  but  the  others 
answered,  — 

"We  's  pays  him." 

"  Well,  when  you  grow  up,  you  '11  probably  get  married, 
as  other  people  do,  and  you  '11  have  your  little  children  ; 
now,  what  will  you  do  with  them?  " 

There  was  a  titter  at  this  question  ;  but  the  general  re- 
sponse came,  — 

"  Send  'em  to  school,  Sir." 

"  Well,  who  '11  pay  the  teacher?  " 

"  We  's  pays  him." 

One  who  listens  to  such  answers  can  hardly  think 
that  there  is  any  natural  incapacity  in  these  children  to 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  115 

acquire  with  maturity  of  years  the  ideas  and  habits  of  good 
citizens. 

The  children  are  cheerful,  and  in  most  of  the  schools 
well-behaved,  except  that  it  is  not  easy  to  keep  them  from 
whispering  and  talking.  They  are  joyous,  and  one  may 
see  the  boys  after  school  playing  the  soldier,  with  corn- 
stalks for  guns.  The  memory  is  very  susceptible  in  them, 
—  too  much  so,  perhaps,  as  it  is  ahead  of  the  reasoning 
faculty. 

The  labor  of  the  season  has  interrupted  attendance  on 
the  schools,  the  parents  being  desirous  of  having  the  chil- 
dren aid  them  in  planting  and  cultivating  their  crops,  and 
it  not  being  thought  best  to  allow  the  teaching  to  inter- 
fere in  any  way  with  industrious  habits. 

Such  are  the  general  features  of  the  schools  as  they  met 
my  eye.  The  most  advanced  classes,  and  these  are  but  little 
ahead  of  the  others,  can  read  simple  stories  and  the  plainer 
passages  of  Scripture ;  and  they  could  even  pursue  self- 
instruction,  if  the  schools  were  to  be  suspended.  The 
knowledge  they  have  thus  gained  can  never  be  extirpated. 
They  could  read  with  much  profit  a  newspaper  specially 
prepared  for  them  and  adapted  to  their  condition.  They 
are  learning  that  the  world  is  not  bounded  north  by  Charles- 
ton, south  by  Savannah,  west  by  Columbia,  and  east  by  the 
sea,  with  dim  visions  of  New  York  on  this  planet  or  some 
other,  —  about  their  conception  of  geography  when  we 
found  them.  They  are  acquiring  the  knowledge  of  figures, 
with  which  to  do  the  business  of  life.  They  are  singing 
the  songs  of  freemen.  Visit  their  schools :  remember 
that  a  little  more  than  a  twelvemonth  ago  they  knew  not 
a  letter,  and  that  for  generations  it  has  been  a  crime  to 
teach  their  race ;  then  contemplate  what  is  now  transpir- 
ing, and  you  have  a  scene  which  prophets  and  sages  would 
have  delighted  to  witness.  It  will  be  difficult  to  find  equal 


Il6  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

progress  in  an  equal  period  since  the  morning  rays  of 
Christian  truth  first  lighted  the  hill-sides  of  Judaea.  I  have 
never  looked  on  St.  Peter's,  or  beheld  the  glories  of  art 
which  Michael  Angelo  has  wrought  or  traced ;  but  to  my 
mind  the  spectacle  of  these  poor  souls  struggling  in  dark- 
ness and  bewilderment  to  catch  the  gleams  of  the  upper 
and  better  light,  transcends  in  moral  grandeur  anything 
that  has  ever  come  from  mortal  hands. 

Next,  as  to  industry.  The  laborers,  during  their  first 
year  under  the  new  system,  have  acquired  the  idea  of 
ownership  and  of  the  security  of  wages,  and  have  come  to 
see  that  labor  and  slavery  are  not  the  same  thing.  The 
notion  that  they  were  to  raise  no  more  cotton  has  passed 
away,  work  on  it  being  found  to  be  remunerative  and  con- 
nected with  the  proprietorship  of  land.  House-servants, 
who  were  at  first  particularly  set  against  such  work,  now 
generally  prefer  it.  The  laborers  have  collected  the  pieces 
of  the  gins  which  they  destroyed  on  the  flight  of  their 
masters  (the  ginning  being  obnoxious  work),  repaired  them, 
and  ginned  the  cotton  on  the  promise  of  wages.  Except 
upon  plantations  in  the  vicinity  of  camps,  where  other 
labor  is  more  immediately  remunerative  and  an  unhealthy 
excitement  prevails,  there  is  a  general  disposition  to  cul- 
tivate cotton.  Its  culture  is  voluntary,  the  only  penalty 
for  not  engaging  in  it  being  the  imposition  of  a  rent  for 
the  tenement  and  land  adjacent  thereto  occupied  by  the 
negro,  not  exceeding  two  dollars  per  month.  Both  the 
government  and  private  individuals,  who  have  become 
owners  of  one  fourth  of  the  land  by  the  recent  tax-sales, 
pay  twenty-five  cents  for  a  standard  day's-work,  which 
may,  by  beginning  early,  be  performed  by  a  healthy  and 
active  hand  by  noon ;  and  the  same  was  the  case  with  the 
tasks  under  the  slave-system  on  very  many  of  the  planta- 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


117 


tions.  As  I  was  riding  through  one  of  Mr.  Edward  S. 
Philbrick's  fields  one  morning,  I  counted  fifty  persons  at 
work  who  belonged  to  one  plantation.  This  gentleman, 
who  went  out  with  the  first  delegation,  and  at  the  same 
time  gave  largely  to  the  benevolent  contributions  for  the 
enterprise,  was  the  leading  purchaser  at  the  tax-sales  ;  and 
combining  a  fine  humanity  with  honest  sagacity  and  close 
calculation,  no  man  is  so  well  fitted  to  try  the  experiment. 
The  general  superintendent  of  Port  Royal  Island  said  to 
me,  "  We  have  to  restrain  rather  than  to  encourage  the 
negroes  to  take  land  for  cotton."  The  general  superin- 
tendent of  Hilton  Head  Island  said  that  on  that  island  the 
negroes  had,  besides  providing  for  adequate  corn,  taken 
two,  three,  and  in  a  few  cases  four  acres  of  cotton  to  a 
hand,  and  there  was  a  general  disposition  to  cultivate  it, 
except  near  the  camps.  A  superintendent  on  St.  Helena 
Island  said  that  if  he  were  going  to  carry  on  any  work,  he 
should  not  want  better  laborers.  He  had  charge  of  the 
refugees  from  Edisto,  who  had  been  brought  to  St.  Helena 
village,  and  who  had  cleared  and  fenced  patches  for  gar- 
dens, felling  the  trees  for  that  purpose. 

The  laborers  do  less  work,  perhaps,  than  a  Yankee 
would  think  they  might  do  ;  but  they  do  about  as  much 
as  he  himself  would  do,  after  a  residence  of  a  few  years  in 
the  same  climate,  and  when  he  had  ceased  to  work  under 
the  influence  of  Northern  habits.  Northern  men  have 
sometimes  been  unjust  to  the  South,  when  comparing  the 
results  of  labor  in  the  different  sections.  God  never  in- 
tended that  a  man  should  toil  under  a  tropical  sun  with 
the  same  energy  and  constancy  as  he  may  do  in  our  bra- 
cing latitude.  There  has  been  less  complaint  this  year 
than  last  of  "  a  pain  in  the  small  of  the  back,"  or  of  "  a 
fever  in  the  head,"  —  in  other  words,  less  shamming.  The 
work  has  been  greatly  deranged  by  the  draft  (some  fea- 


Il8  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

tures  of  which  have  not  been  very  skilfully  arranged),  and 
by  the  fitfulness  with  which  the  laborers  have  been  treated 
by  the  military  authorities.  The  work  both  upon  the  cot- 
ton and  the  corn  is  done  only  by  the  women,  children,  and 
disabled  men.  It  has  been  suggested  that  field-work  does 
not  become  women  in  the  new  condition ;  and  so  it  may 
seem  to  some  persons  of  just  sympathies  who  have  not 
yet  learned  that  no  honest  work  is  dishonorable  in  man  or 
woman.  But  this  matter  may  be  left  to  regulate  itself. 
Field-work,  as  an  occupation,  may  not  be  consistent 
with  the  finest  feminine  culture  or  the  most  complete 
womanliness ;  but  it  in  no  way  conflicts  with  virtue,  self- 
respect,  and  social  development.  Women  work  in  the 
field  in  Switzerland,  the  freest  country  of  Europe  ;  and  we 
may  look  with  pride  on  the  triumphs  of  this  generation, 
when  the  American  negroes  become  the  peers  of  the  Swiss 
peasantry.  Better  a  woman  with  the  hoe  than  without  it, 
when  she  is  not  yet  fitted  for  the  needle  or  the  book. 

The  negroes  were  also  showing  their  capacity  to  organ- 
ize labor  and  apply  capital  to  it.  Harry,  to  whom  I  re- 
ferred in  my  second  report  as  "  my  faithful  guide  and 
attendant,  who  had  done  for  me  more  service  than  any 
white  man  could  render,"  with  funds  of  his  own,  and  some 
borrowed  money,  bought  at  the  recent  tax-sales  a  small 
farm  of  three  hundred  and  thirteen  acres  for  three  hundred 
and  five  dollars.  He  was  to  plant  sixteen  and  a  half 
acres  of  cotton,  twelve  and  a  half  of  corn,  and  one  and  a 
half  of  potatoes.  I  rode  through  his  farm  on  the  loth  of 
April,  my  last  day  on  the  Islands,  and  one  third  of  his 
crop  was  then  in.  Besides  some  servant's  duty  to  an  offi- 
cer, for  which  he  is  well  paid,  he  does  the  work  of  a  full 
hand  on  his  place.  He  hires  one  woman  and  two  men, 
one  of  the  latter  being  old  and  only  a  three-quarters  hand. 
He  has  two  daughters,  sixteen  and  seventeen  years  of  age, 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  119 

one  of  whom  is  likewise  only  a  three-quarters  hand.  His 
wife  works  also,  of  whom  he  said,  "  She  's  the  best  hand 
I  got ;  "  and  if  Celia  is  only  as  smart  with  her  hoe  as  I 
know  her  to  be  with  her  tongue,  Harry's  estimate  must  be 
right.  He  has  a  horse  twenty-five  years  old  and  blind  in 
both  eyes,  whom  he  guides  with  a  rope,  —  carrying  on 
farming,  I  thought,  somewhat  under  difficulties.  Harry 
lives  in  the  house  of  the  former  overseer,  and  delights, 
though  not  boastingly,  in  his  position  as  a  landed  proprie- 
tor. He  has  promised  to  write  me,  or  rather  dictate  a 
letter,  giving  an  account  of  the  progress  of  his  crop.  He 
has  had  much  charge  of  government  property ;  and  when 
Captain  Hooper,  of  General  Saxton's  staff,  was  coming 
North  last  autumn,  Harry  proposed  to  accompany  him ; 
but  at  last,  of  his  own  accord,  gave  up  the  project,  saying, 
"  It  "11  not  do  for  all  two  to  leave  together." 

Another  case  of  capacity  for  organization  should  be 
noted.  The  government  is  building  twenty-one  houses 
for  the  Edisto  people,  eighteen  feet  by  fourteen,  with  two 
rooms,  each  provided  with  a  swinging  board-window,  and 
the  roof  projecting  a  little  as  a  protection  from  rain.  The 
journeymen-carpenters  are  seventeen  colored  men,  who 
have  fifty  cents  per  day  without  rations,  working  ten  hours. 
They  are  under  the  direction  of  Frank  Barnwell,  a  freed- 
man,  who  receives  twenty  dollars  a  month.  Rarely  have 
I  talked  with  a  more  intelligent  contractor. 

It  was  my  great  regret  that  I  had  not  time  to  visit  the 
village  of  improved  houses  near  the  Hilton  Head  camp, 
which  General  Mitchell  had  extemporized,  and  to  which 
he  gave  so  much  of  the  noble  enthusiasm  of  his  last  days. 

Next,  as  to  the  development  of  manhood.  This  has  been 
shown,  in  the  first  place,  in  the  prevalent  disposition  among 
the  freedmen  to  acquire  land.  It  did  not  appear  upon 


120  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

our  first  introduction  to  these  people,  and  they  did  not 
seem  to  understand  us  when  we  used  to  tell  them  that  we 
wanted  them  to  own  land  ;  but  it  is  now  an  active  desire. 
At  the  recent  tax-sales,  six  out  of  forty-seven  plantations 
sold  were  bought  by  them,  comprising  two  thousand  five 
hundred  and  ninety-five  acres,  sold  for  twenty-one  hundred 
and  forty-five  dollars.  In  other  cases  the  negroes  had 
authorized  the  superintendent  to  bid  for  them,  but  the 
land  was  reserved  by  the  United  States.  One  of  the  pur- 
chases was  that  made  by  Harry,  noted  above.  The  other 
five  were  made  by  the  negroes  on  the  plantations  combin- 
ing the  funds  they  had  saved  from  the  sale  of  their  pigs, 
chickens,  and  eggs,  and  from  the  payments  made  to  them 
for  work,  —  they  then  dividing  off  the  tract  peaceably 
among  themselves.  On  one  of  these,  where  Kit  (a  negro 
preacher)  is  the  leading  spirit,  there  are  twenty-three 
field-hands,  who  are  equivalent  to  eighteen  full  hands. 
They  have  planted  and  are  cultivating  sixty-three  acres 
of  cotton,  fifty  of  corn,  six  of  potatoes  (with  as  many 
more  to  be  planted),  four  and  a  half  of  cow-peas,  three 
of  peanuts,  and  one  and  a  half  of  rice.  These  facts  are 
most  significant.  The  instinct  for  land  —  to  have  one 
spot  on  earth  where  a  man  may  stand,  and  whence  no 
human  being  can  of  right  drive  him  —  is  one  of  the 
most  conservative  elements  of  our  nature ;  and  a  people 
who  have  it  in  any  fair  degree  will  never  be  nomads  or 
vagabonds. 

This  developing  manhood  is  further  seen  in  the  freed- 
men's  growing  consciousness  of  rights,  and  their  readiness 
to  defend  themselves,  even  when  assailed  by  white  men. 
The  former  slaves  of  a  planter,  now  at  Beaufort,  who  was 
a  resident  of  New  York  when  the  war  broke  out,  have  gen- 
erally left  the  plantation,  suspicious  of  his  presence,  saying 
that  they  will  not  be  his  bondmen,  and  fearing  that  in 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  12 1 

some  way  he  may  hold  them  if  they  remain  on  it.  A  re- 
markable case  of  the  assertion  of  rights  occurred  one  day 
during  my  visit.  Two  white  soldiers,  with  a  corporal,  went 
on  Sunday  to  Coosaw  Island,  where  one  of  the  soldiers, 
having  a  gun,  shot  a  chicken  belonging  to  a  negro.  The 
negroes  rushed  out  and  wrested  the  gun  from  the  cor- 
poral, —  to  whom  the  soldier  had  handed  it,  thinking 
that  the  negroes  would  not  take  it  from  an  officer ;  they 
then  carried  it  to  the  superintendent,  who  took  it  to  head- 
quarters, where  an  order  was  given  for  the  arrest  of  the 
trespasser.  Other  instances  might  be  added,  but  these 
are  sufficient. 

Another  evidence  of  developing  manhood  appears  in 
their  desire  for  the  comforts  and  conveniences  of  house- 
hold life.  The  Philadelphia  society,  for  the  purpose  of 
maintaining  reasonable  prices,  has  a  store  on  St.  Helena 
Island,  which  is  under  the  charge  of  Friend  Hunn,  of  the 
good  fellowship  of  William  Penn.  He  was  once  fined  in 
Delaware  three  thousand  dollars  for  harboring  and  assist- 
ing fugitive  slaves ;  but  he  now  harbors  and  assists  them 
at  a  much  cheaper  rate.  Though  belonging  to  a  society 
which  is  the  advocate  of  peace,  his  tone  is  quite  as  war- 
like as  that  of  the  world's  people.  In  this  store  alone  — 
and  there  are  others  on  the  island  carried  on  by  private 
enterprise  —  two  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  goods  are 
sold  monthly.  To  be  sure,  a  rather  large  proportion  of 
these  consists  of  molasses  and  sugar,  — "  sweetening,"  as 
the  negroes  call  it,  being  in  great  demand,  four  barrels 
of  molasses  having  been  sold  the  day  of  my  visit.  But 
there  is  also  a  great  demand  for  plates,  knives,  forks,  tin- 
ware, and  better  clothing,  including  even  hoop-skirts. 
Negro-cloth,  as  it  is  called,  osnabiirgs,  russet-colored 
shoes,  —  in  short,  the  distinctive  apparel  formerly  dealt 
out  to  them  as  a  uniform  allowance,  —  are  very  generally 


122  THE   FREEDMEN   AT  PORT   ROYAL. 

rejected.  But  there  is  no  article  of  household  furniture 
or  wearing  apparel  used  by  persons  of  moderate  means 
among  us,  which  they  will  not  purchase  when  they  are 
allowed  the  opportunity  of  labor  and  earning  wages. 
What  a  market  the  South  would  open  under  the  new  sys- 
tem !  It  would  set  all  the  mills  and  workshops  astir. 
Four  millions  of  people  would  become  purchasers  of 
all  the  various  articles  of  manufacture  and  commerce,  in 
place  of  the  few  coarse,  simple  necessaries  laid  in  for  them 
in  gross  by  their  former  masters.  Here  is  the  solution  of 
the  vexed  industrial  question.  The  indisposition  to  labor 
is  overcome  in  a  healthy  nature  by  instincts  and  motives 
of  superior  force,  —  such  as  the  love  of  life,  the  desire 
to  be  well  clothed  and  fed,  the  sense  of  security  derived 
from  provision  for  the  future,  the  feeling  of  self-respect, 
the  love  of  family  and  children,  and  the  convictions  of 
duty.  These  all  exist  in  the  negro,  in  a  state  of  greater 
or  less  development. 

To  give  one  or  two  examples.  One  man  brought  Cap- 
tain Hooper  seventy  dollars  in  silver,  to  keep  for  him, 
which  he  had  obtained  from  selling  pigs  and  chickens,  — 
thus  providing  for  the  future.  Soldiers  of  Colonel  Hig- 
ginson's  regiment,  having  confidence  in  the  same  officer, 
intrusted  him,  when  they  were  paid  off,  with  seven  hun- 
dred dollars,  to  be  transmitted  by  him  to  their  wives,  and 
this  besides  what  they  had  sent  home  in  other  ways,  — 
showing  the  family  feeling  to  be  active  and  strong  in  them. 
They  have  also  the  social  and  religious  inspirations  to 
labor.  Thus,  early  in  our  occupation  of  Hilton  Head,  they 
took  up,  of  their  own  accord,  a  collection  to  pay  for  the 
candles  for  their  evening  meetings,  feeling  that  it  was  not 
right  for  the  government  longer  to  provide  them.  The 
result  was  a  contribution  of  two  dollars  and  forty-eight 
cents.  They  had  just  fled  from  their  masters,  and  had 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  123 

received  only  a  small  pittance  of  wages;  and  this  little 
sum  was  not  unlike  the  two  mites  which  the  widow  cast 
into  the  treasury.  Another  collection  was  taken,  last 
June,  in  the  church  on  St.  Helena  Island,  upon  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  pastor  that  they  should  share  in  the  expen- 
ses of  worship.  Fifty-two  dollars  was  the  result,  —  not  a 
bad  collection  for  some  of  our  Northern  churches.  I 
have  seen  these  people  where  they  are  said  to  be  lowest, 
and  sad  indeed  are  some  features  of  their  lot;  yet  with 
all  earnestness  and  confidence  I  enter  my  protest  against 
the  wicked  satire  of  Carlyle. 

Is  there  not  here  some  solution  of  the  question  of  preju- 
dice or  caste  which  has  troubled  so  many  good  minds? 
When  these  people  can  no  longer  be  used  as  slaves,  men 
will  try  to  see  how  they  can  make  the  most  out  of  them  as 
freemen.  Your  Irishman,  who  now  works  as  a  day-laborer, 
honestly  thinks  that  he  hates  the  negro ;  but  when  the  war 
is  over,  he  will  have  no  objection  .to  going  South  and  sell- 
ing him  groceries  and  household  implements  at  fifty  per 
cent  advance  on  New  York  prices,  or  to  hiring  him  to 
raise  cotton  for  twenty-five  or  fifty  cents  a  day.  Our 
prejudices,  under  any  reasonable  adjustment  of  the  social 
system,  readily  accommodate  themselves  to  our  interests, 
even  without  much  aid  from  the  moral  sentiments. 

Let  those  who  would  study  well  this  social  question,  or 
who  in  public  trusts  are  charged  with  its  solution,  be  most 
careful  here.  Every  motive  in  the  minds  of  these  people, 
whether  of  instinct,  desire,  or  duty,  must  be  addressed. 
All  the  elements  of  human  nature  must  be  appealed  to, 
physical,  moral,  intellectual,  social,  and  religious.  Im- 
perfect indeed  is  any  system  which,  like  that  at  New 
Orleans,  offers  wages,  but  does  not  welcome  the  teacher. 
It  is  of  little  moment  whether  three  or  thirty  dollars  per 
month  be  paid  the  laborer,  so  long  as  there  is  no  school 


124 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 


to  bind  both  parent  and  child  to  civil  society  with  new 
hopes  and  duties. 

There  are  some  vices  charged  upon  these  people,  or  a 
portion  of  them,  and  truth  requires  that  nothing  be  with- 
held. There  is  said  to  be  a  good  deal  of  petty  pilfering 
among  them,  although  they  are  faithful  to  trusts.  This  is 
the  natural  growth  of  the  old  system,  and  is  quite  likely 
to  accompany  the  transition-state ;  besides,  the  present 
disturbed  and  unorganized  condition  of  things  is  not  fa- 
vorable to  the  rigid  virtues.  But  inferences  from  this  must 
not  be  pressed  too  far.  When  I  was  a  private  soldier  in 
Virginia,  as  one  of  a  three-months'  regiment,  we  used  to 
hide  from  one  another  our  little  comforts  and  delicacies, 
even  our  dishes  and  clothing,  or  they  were  sure  to  disap- 
pear. A  parcel  of  unworn  underclothing  which  I  had 
brought  from  Boston  disappeared  while  I  was  on  the 
"  Pawnee  "  during  our  expedition  to  Norfolk,  doubtless 
taken  by  some  one  of  .its  enlisted  men.  But  we  should 
have  ridiculed  an  adventurous  thinker  upon  the  character- 
istics of  races  and  classes,  who  should  have  leaped  there- 
from to  the  conclusion  that  all  white  men  or  all  soldiers 
are  thieves.  And  what  inferences  might  not  one  draw, 
discreditable  to  all  traders  and  manufacturers,  from  the 
universal  adulteration  of  articles  of  food  ! 

These  people,  it  is  said,  are  disposed  to  falsehood  in 
order  to  get  rations  and  small  benefits,  —  a  natural 
vice  which  comes  with  slavery,  and  too  often  attends  on 
poverty  without  slavery.  Those  of  most  demonstrative 
piety  are  rarely  better  than  the  rest;  not,  indeed,  hypocrit- 
ical, but  satisfying  their  consciences  by  self-depreciation 
and  indulgence  in  emotion,  —  psychological  manifesta- 
tions which  one  may  find  in  more  advanced  communities. 
They  show  no  special  gratitude  to  us  for  liberating  them 
from  bonds.  Nor  do  they  ordinarily  display  much  exhil- 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  125 

aration  over  their  new  condition,  —  being  quite  unlike  the 
Italian  revolutionist,  who  used  to  put  on  his  toga,  walk  in 
the  Forum,  and  personate  Brutus  and  Cassius.  The  freed- 
men's  appreciation  of  their  better  lot  is  chiefly  seen  in 
their  dread  of  a  return  of  their  masters,  in  their  excite- 
ment when  an  attack  is  feared,  in  their  anxious  question- 
ings while  the  assault  on  Charleston  was  going  on,  and 
in  their  desire  to  get  their  friends  and  relatives  away  from 
the  rebels,  —  an  appreciation  of  freedom,  if  not  ostenta- 
tious, at  least  sensible. 

But  away  with  such  frivolous  modes  of  dealing  with  the 
rights  of  races  to  self-development !  Because  Englishmen 
may  be  classified  as  hard  and  conceited,  Frenchmen  as 
capricious,  Austrians  as  dull,  and  the  people  of  one 
other  nation  are  sometimes  thought  to  be  vainglorious, 
shall  these  therefore  be  slaves?  And  where  is  that 
model  race  which  shall  sway  them  all?  A  people  may 
have  grave  defects,  but  it  may  not  therefore  be  rightfully 
disabled. 

During  my  recent  visit,  I  had  an  opportunity,  on  three 
different  occasions,  to  note  carefully  Colonel  T.  W.  Hig- 
ginson's  colored  regiment,  known  as  the  First  Regiment  of 
South  Carolina  Volunteers.  Major-General  Hunter's  first 
regiment  was  mainly  made  up  of  conscripts,  drafted  May 
12,  1862,  and  disbanded  August  II,  three  months  after- 
wards, —  there  being  no  funds  wherewith  to  pay  them, 
and  the  discharged  men  going  home  to  find  the  cotton 
and  corn  they  had  planted  overgrown  with  weeds.  On 
the  loth  of  October,  General  Saxton,  being  provided  with 
competent  authority  to  raise  five  thousand  colored  troops, 
began  to  recruit  a  regiment.  His  authority  from  the  War 
Department  bore  date  August  25,  and  the  order  confer- 
ring it  states  the  object  to  be  "  to  guard  the  plantations, 


126  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

and  protect  the  inhabitants  from  captivity  and  murder." 
This  was  the  first  clear  authority  ever  given  by  the  gov- 
ernment to  raise  a  negro  regiment  in  this  war.  There 
were,  indeed,  some  ambiguous  words  in  the  instructions 
of  Secretary  Cameron  to  General  Sherman  when  the  ori- 
ginal expedition  went  to  Port  Royal,  authorizing  him  to 
organize  the  negroes  into  companies  and  squads  for  such 
services  as  they  might  be  fitted  for,  but  this  not  to  mean  a 
general  arming  for  military  service.  Secretary  Stanton, 
though  furnishing  muskets  and  red  trousers  to  General 
Hunter's  regiment,  did  not  think  the  authority  sufficient 
to  justify  the  payment  of  the  regiment.  The  first  regi- 
ment, as  raised  by  General  Saxton,  numbered  four  hun- 
dred and  ninety-nine  men  when  Colonel  Higginson  took 
command  of  it  on  the  1st  of  December;  and  on  the  igth 
of  January,  1863,  it  had  increased  to  eight  hundred  and 
forty-nine.  It  has  made  three  expeditions  to  Florida 
and  Georgia,  —  one  before  Colonel  Higginson  assumed 
the  command,  described  in  Mrs.  Stowe's  letter  to  the 
women  of  England ;  and  two  under  Colonel  Higginson, 
one  of  which  was  made  in  January  up  the  St.  Mary's,  and 
the  other  in  March  to  Jacksonville,  which  it  occupied  for 
a  few  days  until  an  evacuation  was  ordered  from  head- 
quarters. The  men  are  volunteers,  having  been  led  to 
enlist  by  duty  to  their  race,  to  their  kindred  still  in 
bonds,  and  to  us  their  allies.  Their  drill  is  good,  and 
their  time  excellent.  They  have  borne  themselves  well 
in  their  expeditions,  quite  equalling  the  white  regiments  in 
skirmishing.  In  morale  they  seemed  very  much  like 
white  men,  and  with  about  the  same  proportion  of  good 
and  indifferent  soldiers.  Some  I  saw  of  the  finest  mettle, 
—  like  Robert  Sutton,  whom  Higginson  describes  in  his 
report  as  "  the  real  conductor  of  the  whole  expedition  at 
the  St.  Mary's ;  "  and  Sergeant  Hodges,  a  master  carpenter, 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  1 27 

capable  of  directing  the  labors  of  numerous  journeymen. 
Another  said,  addressing  a  meeting  at  Beaufort,  that  he 
had  been  restless,  nights,  thinking  of  the  war  and  of  his 
people  ;  that  when  he  heard  of  the  regiment  being  formed, 
he  felt  that  his  time  to  act  had  come,  and  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  enlist:  that  he  did  not  fight  for  his  rations  and 
pay,  but  for  wife,  children,  and  people. 

These  men,  as  already  intimated,  are  very  much  like 
other  men,  —  easily  depressed,  and  as  easily  reanimated  by 
words  of  encouragement.  Many  have  been  reluctant  to 
engage  in  military  service, — their  imagination  investing 
it  with  the  terrors  of  instant  and  certain  death.  But  this 
reluctance  has  passed  away  with  participation  in  active 
service,  with  the  adventure  and  inspiration  of  a  soldier's 
life ;  and  the  latent  manhood  has  recovered  its  rightful 
sway.  Said  a  superintendent  who  was  of  the  first  delega- 
tion to  Port  Royal  in  March,  1862,  —  a  truthful  man,  and 
not  given  to  rose-colored  views,  —  "I  did  not  have  faith 
in  arming  negroes  when  I  visited  the  North  last  autumn, 
but  I  have  now.  They  will  be,  not  mere  machines,  but 
real  tigers,  when  aroused ;  and  I  should  not  wish  to  face 
them."  One  amusing  incident  may  be  mentioned.  A 
man  deserted  from  the  regiment ;  was  discovered  hidden 
in  a  chimney  in  the  district  where  he  had  lived  ;  was  taken 
back  to  camp ;  went  to  Florida  in  Higginson's  first  expe- 
dition ;  bore  his  part  well  in  the  skirmishes ;  became 
excited  with  the  service;  was  made  a  sergeant,  and,  re- 
ceiving a  furlough  on  his  return,  went  to  the  plantation 
where  he  had  hidden,  and  said  he  would  not  take  five 
thousand  dollars  for  his  sergeantship. 

But  more  significant,  as  showing  the  success  of  the  ex- 
periment, is  the  change  of  feeling  among  the  white  soldiers 
toward  the  negro  regiment, —  a  change  due  in  part  to  the 
just  policy  of  General  Saxton,  in  part  to  the  President's 


128  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

Proclamation  of  January  I,  which  has  done  much  to  clear 
the  atmosphere  everywhere  within  the  army  lines,  but 
more  than  all  to  the  soldierly  conduct  of  the  negroes 
themselves  during  their  expeditions. 


Such  are  some  of  the  leading  features  in  the  condition 
of  the  freedmen,  particularly  at  Port  Royal.  The  enter- 
prise for  their  aid,  begun  in  doubt,  is  no  longer  a  bare  hope 
or  possibility.  It  is  a  fruition  and  a  consummation. 
The  negroes  will  work  for  a  living.  They  will  fight  for 
their  freedom.  They  are  adapted  to  civil  society.  As  a 
people,  they  are  not  exempt  from  the  frailties  of  our  com- 
mon humanity,  nor  from  the  vices  which  hereditary  bond- 
age always  superadds  to  these.  As  it  is  said  to  take 
three  generations  to  subdue  a  freeman  completely  to  a 
slave,  so  it  may  not  be  possible  in  a  single  generation  to 
restore  the  pristine  manhood.  One  who  expects  to  find 
in  emancipated  slaves  perfect  men  and  women,  or  to  real- 
ize in  them  some  fair  dream  of  an  ideal  race,  will  meet  dis- 
appointment; but  there  is  nothing  in  their  nature  or 
condition  to  daunt  the  Christian  patriot, —  rather,  there  is 
everything  to  cheer  and  fortify  his  faith.  They  have 
shown  capacity  for  knowledge,  for  free  industry,  for  sub- 
ordination to  law,  and  discipline,  for  soldierly  fortitude, 
for  social  and  family  relations,  for  religious  culture  and 
aspirations;  and  these  qualities,  when  stirred  and  sus- 
tained by  the  incitements  and  rewards  of  a  just  society, 
and  combining  with  the  currents  of  our  continental  civili- 
zation, will,  under  the  guidance  of  a  benevolent  Providence, 
which  forgets  neither  them  nor  us,  make  them  a  con- 
stantly progressive  race,  and  secure  them  ever  after  from 
the  calamity  of  another  enslavement,  and  ourselves  from 
the  worse  calamity  of  being  again  their  oppressors. 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL.  129 

In  connection  with  the  foregoing  magazine  article  and  official 
reports  upon  the  Freedmen,  the  following  letters  from  John  Bright, 
John  Bigelow,  and  M.  Gasparin  have  special  interest :  — 

ROCHDALE,  September  26,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  read  your  reports  as  they  have  ap- 
peared in  the  newspapers,  and  I  receive  regularly  the  Atlantic 
Monthly.  I  have  taken  great  interest  in  your  labors  and  your 
reports,  and  I  can  assure  you  what  you  have  written  has  had  a 
considerable  effect  here ;  for  there  is  a  large  and  intelligent  class 
here  who  watch  with  constant  interest  all  that  is  passing  touching 
the  fate  of  the  negro.  A  nation  requires  much  teaching,  and 
your  people  are  passing  through  a  rugged  school  on  this  negrc 
question.  A  century  of  oppression  and  crime  cannot  be  atoned 
for  by  a  slight  period  of  suffering,  and  I  suppose  only  a  severe 
chastisement  can  bring  about  a  complete  repentance.  .  .  . 

You  will  derive  much  satisfaction  from  your  labors  on  behalf  of 
the  negro.  To  have  lifted  from  his  back  only  a  portion  of  the 
burden  under  which  he  has  groaned  will  be  a  blessing  to  you  in  a 
day  to  come,  more  than  any  to  be  derived  from  the  results  of 
successful  ambition.  I  wish  you  every  success,  and  all  the  com- 
pensation and  recompense  which  God  gives  to  those  who  act 
justly  by  the  suffering  ones  of  his  creatures. 
I  am  very  sincerely  yours, 

JOHN  BRIGHT. 
EDWARD  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 


Mr.  Bigelow,  at  the  time  of  writing  the  following  letter,  was 
United  States  Consul  at  Paris ;  two  years  later  he  succeeded  Mr. 
Dayton  as  Minister  to  France  :  — 

PARIS,  July  3,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  read  your  reports  with  great  satisfac- 
tion. They  contained  much  information  for  which  I  have  re- 
ceived frequent  application,  and  wondered  that  the  government 
had  not  brought  earlier  within  the  reach  of  its  foreign  representa- 

9 


130  THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL. 

lives.  I  hope  in  future  you  will  go  a  little  more  into  detail. 
You  can  hardly  be  too  minute  in  giving  the  processes  by  which  you 
attempt  to  awaken  the  freed  blacks  to  a  comprehension  of  the 
privileges  and  duties  of  freedom. 

I  have  sent  a  copy  of  your  reports  to  Laboulaye,  with  a  note 
stating  the  general  character  of  your  mission.  I  have  also  sent  a 
copy  to  Cochin,  and  given  a  copy  to  M.  Reclus,  who  was  in  my 
office  yesterday ;  he  is  the  author  of  the  article  on  the  blacks  in 
America.  This  morning  he  brought  a  copy  for  you,  which  I  will 
forward  by  this  evening's  mail.1 

I  think  you  have  a  very  interesting  mission,  and  have  no  doubt 
it  will  one  day  reflect  great  credit  upon  you. 
Yours  very  truly, 

JOHN  BIGELOW. 
EDWARD  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 


DEAR  SIR,  —  You  are  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  finest  enter- 
prises now  undertaken  in  America.  To  transform  slaves  into 
peasants ;  to  show  by  facts  that  free  negroes  are  not  monsters ;  to 
preserve  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  which  the  folly  of  the  South  per- 
sists in  sacrificing,  —  this  is  to  do  much  for  the  definitive  solution 
of  the  great  problem  whose  solution  weighs  at  this  moment  on 
your  great  people.  .  .  . 

Believe,  Sir,  in  my  sincere  sentiment  of  great  esteem  and 
devotion. 

A.  DE  GASPARIN. 


VALLOGES,  October  2,  1863. 

I  hasten  to  offer  to  you  anew  all  my  thanks.  No  question  ap- 
pears to  me  greater  and  more  beautiful  than  that  whose  solution  is 
placed  in  your  hands.  Your  successes  at  Port  Royal  are  victories 
gained  over  the  greal  enemy,  —  over  the  prejudices  which  yet  too 
often  reign  in  the  North  itself. 

1  The  paper  bore  the  autograph  of  M.  Reclus,  with  the  words  "  A  M. 
Edward  Pierce ;  avec  reconnaissance  pour  tout  le  bien  qu'il  a  fait." 


THE   FREEDMEN   AT   PORT   ROYAL  131 

In  showing  that  the  negroes  are  capable  of  work  and  develop- 
ment, that  they  are  men,  and  that  they  may  become  citizens,  you 
do  much  for  the  triumph  of  the  good  cause.  May  God  bless  your 
efforts  ! 

Your  complete  narration  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  your  official 
reports,  both  of  which  contain  so  many  important  details,  —  all 
which  documents  I  owe  to  your  kindness,  —  enable  me  to  watch 
the  progress  of  a  magnificent  experiment. 

I  am  sure  that  your  cotton  will  have  a  great  success.  May  you 
be  able  to  demonstrate  to  the  most  incredulous  that  this  culture  is 
to  be  maintained  in  the  South  under  the  rule  of  liberty ! 

I  beg  you  to  believe,  Sir,  in  my  high  esteem  and  devotion. 

A.  DE  GASPARIN. 


132 


ASSAULT  ON  FORT  WAGNER. 


IV. 

ASSAULT    ON    FORT   WAGNER. 

AFTER  his  return  from  his  visit  to  Port  Royal  in  the  spring  of 
1863,  Mr.  Pierce  delivered  addresses  in  Boston,  Newton,  Concord, 
and  other  places  in  behalf  of  the  freedmen  of  the  Sea  Islands. 
The  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts  Regiment,  composed  of  colored 
men  and  commanded  by  Colonel  Robert  G.  Shaw,  was  then 
being  drilled  at  Readville,  and  was  about  to  leave  for  the  field. 
Mr.  Chase,  still  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  came  to  Boston  April  30, 
and  sending  for  Mr.  Pierce,  informed  him  that  the  above  regiment 
and  other  colored  troops  were  shortly  to  occupy  Florida,  with  a 
view  to  the  restoration  of  civil  government  in  that  State.  He 
said  that  the  plan  was  to  include  the  colored  people  among  those 
entitled  to  suffrage,  and  thus  offset  their  exclusion  a  year  before 
by  Governor  Edward  Stanly  in  the  initiation  of  a  State  govern- 
ment for  North  Carolina.  Mr.  Pierce  asked  how  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  regard  the  proposed  inclusion  of  negroes  in  the  voting 
class,  and  Mr.  Chase  replied  that  he  would  not  mind  if  it  were 
done  "  unbeknownst  "  to  him.  Mr.  Pierce  suggested  a  limitation 
of  the  suffrage  to  those  who  could  read  or  write  or  had  borne 
arms.  Mr.  Chase  made  no  objection  to  this,  but  left  it  as  an 
open  question.  He  desired  Mr.  Pierce  to  accept  the  post  of 
Supervising  Agent  of  the  Treasury  Department  for  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  South,  with  a  view  to  his  assisting  in  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  Florida  on  the  basis  of  equal  suffrage  for  the  colored  peo- 
ple. Mr.  Pierce  accepted  the  appointment,  and  left  New  York 
for  Port  Royal  June  6.  He  remained  in  the  service,  attending  to 
the  commercial  interests  of  the  government  in  the  territory  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  which  was  occupied  by 
United  States  troops,  until  the  beginning  of  September.  The 
plan  which  Mr.  Chase  had  at  heart  was,  however,  not  put  into 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER.  133 

effect.  The  exigencies  of  military  operations  against  Charleston 
requiring  the  concentration  of  troops  on  the  islands  in  its  vicinity, 
the  Fifty-fourth  and  Fifty-fifth  Massachusetts  colored  regiments 
were  sent  there. 

Mr.  Pierce  was  the  guest  on  Morris  Island,  July  18,  —  the  day 
of  the  assault  on  Fort  Wagner,  —  of  Brigadier-General  George  C. 
Strong,  who  commanded  the  assaulting  body.1  A  large  number 
of  officers  took  supper  that  evening  in  the  General's  tent, — 
among  them  Colonel  Shaw, — just  before  they  went  to  the  front. 
A  few  days  later,  Mr.  Pierce  wrote  the  following  letter  to  Governor 
Andrew :  — 

BEAUFORT,  July  22,  i863-2 

MY  DEAR  SlR, — You  will  probably  receive  an  official 
report  of  the  losses  in  the  Fifty- fourth  Massachusetts  by 
the  mail  which  leaves  to-morrow,  but  perhaps  a  word  from 
me  may  not  be  unwelcome.  I  saw  the  officers  and  men 
on  James  Island  on  the  I3th  inst,  and  on  Saturday  last 
saw  them  at  Brigadier-General  Strong's  tent,  as  they 
passed  on  at  six  or  half-past  six  in  the  evening  to  Fort 
Wagner,  which  is  some  two  miles  beyond.  Since  Tuesday 
I  had  been  the  guest  of  General  Strong,  who  commanded 
the  advance.  Colonel  Shaw  had  become  attached  to  Gen- 
eral Strong  at  St.  Helena,  where  he  served  under  him, 
and  the  regard  was  mutual.  When  the  troops  left  St. 
Helena  they  were  separated,  the  Fifty-fourth  going  to 
James  Island.  While  it  was  there,  General  Strong  received 
a  letter  from  Colonel  Shaw,  in  which  the  desire  was  ex- 
pressed for  the  transfer  of  the  Fifty-fourth  to  General 
Strong's  brigade.  So  when  the  troops  were  brought  away 

1  General    Strong  died  in  New   York  City,  July   30,    1863,  of  wounds 
received  in  the  assault. 

2  This  letter  will  be  found  in  Moore's  "Rebellion  Record,"  vii.  215-216, 
in  the  "Boston  Journal,"  July  29,  1863,  and  —  together  with  Mr.  Pierce's 
letter  to  Colonel  Shaw's  parents  —  in  the  privately  printed  "  Memorial "  of 
Colonel  Shaw,  pp.  53-60. 


134 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER. 


from  James  Island,  General  Strong  took  this  regiment  into 
his  command.  It  left  James  Island  on  Thursday,  July  16,  at 
nine  P.  M.,  and  marched  to  Cole's  Island,  which  they  reached 
at  four  o'clock  on  Friday  morning,  —  marching  all  night, 
most  of  the  way  in  single  file,  over  swampy  and  muddy 
ground.  There  they  remained  during  the  day,  with  hard 
tack  and  coffee  for  their  fare,  and  this  only  what  was  left 
in  their  haversacks,  —  not  a  regular  ration.  From  eleven 
o'clock  of  Friday  evening  until  four  o'clock  A.  M.  of  Saturday 
they  were  being  put  on  the  transport  "  General  Hunter,"  in 
a  boat  which  took  about  fifty  at  a  time.  There  they  break- 
fasted on  the  same  fare,  and  had  no  other  food  before  tak- 
ing part  in  the  assault  on  Fort  Wagner  in  the  evening. 

The  "  General  Hunter "  left  Cole's  Island  for  Folly 
Island  at  six  A.  M.,  and  the  troops  landed  at  the  Pawnee 
Landing  about  half-past  nine  A.  M.,  and  thence  marched 
to  the  point  opposite  Morris  Island,  reaching  there  about 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  They  were  transported  in 
a  steamer  across  the  inlet,  and  at  five  P.  M.  began  their 
march  for  Fort  Wagner.  They  reached  General  Strong's 
quarters,  nearly  midway  on  the  island,  about  six,  or  half- 
past  six,  where  they  halted  for  five  minutes.  I  saw  them 
here,  and  they  looked  worn  and  weary. 

General  Strong  expressed  a  great  desire  to  give  them 
food  and  stimulants ;  but  it  was  too  late,  as  they  were  to 
lead  the  charge.  They  had  been  without  tents  during  the 
pelting  rains  of  Thursday  and  Friday  nights.  General 
Strong  had  been  impressed  with  the  high  character  of  the 
regiment  and  its  officers,  and  he  wished  to  assign  them  the 
post  where  the  most  severe  work  was  to  be  done  and 
the  highest  honor  was  to  be  won.  Having  been  his  guest 
for  some  days,  I  knew  how  he  regarded  them.  The  march 
across  Folly  and  Morris  islands  was  over  a  very  sandy 
road,  and  was  extremely  wearisome.  The  regiment  went 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER.  135 

through  the  centre  of  the  island,  and  not  along  the  beach 
where  the  marching  was  easier.  When  they  had  come 
within  about  sixteen  hundred  yards  of  Fort  Wagner,  they 
halted  and  formed  in  line  of  battle,  —  the  colonel  leading 
the  right,  and  the  lieutenant-colonel  the  left,  wing.  They 
then  marched  four  hundred  yards  farther  on,  and  halted 
again.  There  was  little  firing  from  the  enemy  at  this 
point,  —  a  solid  shot  falling  between  the  wings,  and 
another  falling  to  the  right,  but  no  musketry. 

At  this  point  the  regiment,  together  with  the  next  sup- 
porting regiments,  —  the  Sixth  Connecticut,  Ninth  Maine, 
and  others,  —  remained  half  an  hour.  The  regiment  was 
addressed  by  General  Strong  and  Colonel  Shaw.  Then  at 
half-past  seven  or  quarter  before  eight  o'clock  the  order 
for  the  charge  was  given.  The  regiment  advanced  at 
quick  time,  changing  to  double-quick  when  at  some  dis- 
tance on.  The  intervening  distance  between  the  place 
where  the  line  was  formed  and  the  fort,  was  run  over  in 
a  few  minutes.  When  within  one  or  two  hundred  yards 
of  the  fort,  a  terrific  fire  of  grape  and  musketry  was 
poured  upon  them  along  the  entire  line,  and  with  deadly 
results.  It  tore  the  ranks  to  pieces  and  disconcerted  some. 
They  rallied  again,  went  through  the  ditch,  in  which  were 
some  three  feet  of  water,  and  then  up  the  parapet.  They 
raised  the  flag  on  the  parapet,  where  it  remained  for  a  few 
minutes.  Here  they  melted  away  before  the  enemy's  fire, 
their  bodies  falling  down  the  slope  and  into  the  ditch. 
Others  will  give  a  more  detailed  and  accurate  account  of 
what  occurred  during  the  rest  of  the  conflict 

Colonel  Shaw  reached  the  parapet,  leading  his  men,  and 
was  probably  there  killed.  Adjutant  James  saw  him  fall. 
Private  Thomas  Burgess  of  Co.  I  told  me  that  he  was  close 
to  Colonel  Shaw ;  that  he  waved  his  sword  and  cried  out, 
'  Onward,  boys ! '  and,  as  he  did  so,  fell.  Burgess  fell, 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER. 

wounded,  at  the  same  time.  In  a  minute  or  two,  as  he 
rose  to  crawl  away,  he  tried  to  pull  Colonel  Shaw  along, 
taking  hold  of  his  feet,  which  were  near  his  own  head  ;  but 
there  appeared  to  be  no  life  in  him.  There  is  a  report, 
however,  that  Colonel  Shaw  is  wounded  and  a  prisoner, 
and  that  it  was  so  stated  to  the  officers  who  bore  a  flag 
of  truce  from  us;  but  I  cannot  find  it  well  authenticated. 
It  is  most  likely  that  this  noble  youth  has  given  his  life  to 
his  country  and  to  mankind.  Brigadier-General  Strong 
(himself  a  kindred  spirit)  said  of  him  to-day,  in  a  message 
to  his  parents :  "  I  had  but  little  opportunity  to  be  with 
him,  but  I  already  loved  him.  No  man  ever  went  more 
gallantly  into  battle.  None  knew  him  but  to  love  him." 
I  parted  with  Colonel  Shaw  between  six  and  seven  Satur- 
day evening,  as  he  rode  forward  to  his  regiment,  when, 
after  mounting  his  horse,  he  gave  me  the  private  letters 
and  papers  he  had  with  him,  to  be  delivered  to  his  father. 
Of  the  other  officers,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hallowell  is 
severely  wounded  in  the  groin.  Adjutant  James  has  a 
wound  from  a  grape-shot  in  his  ankle,  and  also  a  flesh- 
wound  in  his  side  from  a  glancing  ball  or  a  piece  of 
shell.  Captain  Pope  has  had  a  musket-ball  extracted 
from  his  shoulder.  Captain  Appleton  is  wounded  in  the 
thumb,  and  also  has  a  contusion  on  his  right  breast  from 
a  hand-grenade.  Captain  Willard  has  a  wound  in  the  leg, 
and  is  doing  well.  Captain  Jones  was  wounded  in  the 
right  shoulder;  the  ball  went  through,  and  he  is  doing 
well.  Lieutenant  Homans  was  wounded  by  a  ball  from 
a  smooth-bore  musket  entering  the  left  side,  which  has 
been  extracted  from  the  back;  he  is  doing  well. 

The  above  named  officers  are  at  Beaufort,  all  but  the 
last  arriving  there  on  Sunday  evening,  whither  they  were 
taken  from  Morris  Island  to  Pawnee  Landing  in  the  "  Alice 
Price,"  and  thence  to  Beaufort  in  the  "Cosmopolitan," 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER.  137 

which  is  specially  fitted  up  for  hospital  service  and  is 
provided  with  skilful  surgeons  under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  Bontecou.  They  are  now  tenderly  cared  for  with  an 
adequate  corps  of  surgeons  and  nurses,  and  provided  with 
a  plentiful  supply  of  ice,  beef  and  chicken  broth,  and  stimu- 
lants. Lieutenant  Smith  was  left  at  the  hospital  tent  on 
Morris  Island.  Captain  Emilio,  and  Lieutenants  Grace, 
Appleton,  Johnston,  Reed,  Howard,  Dexter,  Jennison,  and 
Emerson  were  not  wounded  and  are  doing  duty.  Lieu- 
tenants Jewett  and  Tucker  were  slightly  wounded,  and  are 
also  doing  duty.  Lieutenant  Pratt  was  wounded,  and  came 
in  from  the  field  on  the  following  day.  Captains  Russell 
and  Simpkins  are  missing.  The  quartermaster  and  sur- 
geon are  safe,  and  are  with  the  regiment. 

The  surgeon,  Dr.  Stone,  remained  on  the  "Alice  Price" 
during  Saturday  night,  caring  for  the  wounded  until  she 
left  Morris  Island,  and  then  returned  to  look  after  those 
who  were  left  behind.  The  assistant-surgeon  was  at  the 
camp  on  St.  Helena  Island,  attending  to  duty  there.  Lieu- 
tenant Littlefield  was  also  in  charge  of  the  camp  at  St. 
Helena.  Lieutenant  Higginson  was  on  Folly  Island  with 
a  detail  of  eighty  men  at  the  time  of  the  charge.  Captain 
Bridge  and  Lieutenant  Walton  are  sick,  and  were  at  Beau- 
fort or  vicinity.  Captain  Partridge  had  returned  from  the 
North,  but  not  in  time  to  participate  in  the  action. 

Of  the  privates  and  non-commissioned  officers  I  send 
you  a  list  of  one  hundred  and  forty-four  who  are  now  in 
the  Beaufort  hospitals.  Besides  these  wounded  men,  a  few 
died  on  the  boats  or  since  their  arrival  here.  There  may 
be  some  at  the  Hilton  Head  hospital,  and  others  are  doubt- 
less on  Morris  Island ;  but  I  have  no  names  or  statistics 
relative  to  them.  Those  in  Beaufort  are  well  attended 
to,  —  just  as  well  as  the  white  soldiers,  the  attentions  of 
the  surgeons  and  nurses  being  supplemented  by  those 


138  ASSAULT  ON   FORT   WAGNER. 

of  the  colored  people  here,  who  have  shown  a  great  interest 
in  them.  The  men  of  the  regiment  are  very  patient,  and, 
where  their  condition  at  all  permits,  are  cheerful.  They 
expressed  their  readiness  to  meet  the  enemy  again,  and 
they  keep  asking  if  Wagner  is  yet  taken.  Could  any  one 
from  the  North  see  these  brave  fellows  as  they  lie  here, 
his  prejudice  against  them,  if  he  had  any,  would  all  pass 
away.  They  grieve  greatly  at  the  loss  of  Colonel  Shaw, 
who  seems  to  have  acquired  a  strong  hold  on  their  affec- 
tions. They  are  also  attached  to  their  other  officers,  and 
admire  General  Strong,  whose  courage  was  so  conspicuous 
to  all. 

I  asked  General  Strong  if  he  had  any  testimony  in  re- 
lation to  the  regiment  to  be  communicated  to  you.  These 
are  his  precise  words,  spoken  from  his  bed,  and  I  give  them 
to  you  as  I  noted  them  at  the  time :  "The  Fifty-fourth  did 
well  and  nobly;  only  the  fall  of  Colonel  Shaw  prevented 
them  from  entering  the  fort.  They  moved  up  as  gal- 
lantly as  any  troops  could,  and  with  their  enthusiasm  they 
deserved  a  better  fate." 

The  regiment  could  not  have  been  under  a  better  officer 
than  General  Strong.  He  is  one  of  the  bravest  and  most 
genuine  of  men.  His  soldiers  loved  him  like  a  brother, 
and  go  where  you  would  through  the  camps,  you  would 
hear  them  speak  of  him  with  enthusiasm  and  affection. 
His  wound  is  severe,  and  there  are  some  apprehensions  as 
to  his  being  able  to  recover  from  it.  Since  I  found  him 
at  the  hospital  tent  on  Morris  Island,  about  half- past  nine 
o'clock  on  Saturday  evening,  I  have  been  all  the  time  at- 
tending to  him  or  the  officers  of  the  Fifty-fourth,  both  on 
the  boats  and  here.  Nobler  spirits  it  has  never  been  my 
fortune  to  be  with.  General  Strong,  as  he  lay  on  the 
stretcher  in  the  tent,  was  grieving  all  the  while  for  the  poor 
fellows  who  lay  uncared  for  on  the  battle-field;  and  the 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER.  139 

officers  of  the  Fifty-fourth  have  had  nothing  to  say  of  their 
own  misfortunes,  but  have  mourned  constantly  for  the  hero 
who  led  them  to  the  charge  from  which  he  did  not  return. 
I  remember  well  the  beautiful  day  when  the  flags  were  pre- 
sented at  Readville,  and  you  told  the  regiment  that  your 
reputation  was  to  be  identified  with  its  fame.  It  was  a 
day  of  festivity  and  cheer.  I  walk  now  in  these  hospitals, 
and  see  mutilated  form^  with  every  variety  of  wound,  and 
it  seems  all  a  dream.  But  well  has  the  regiment  sustained 
the  hope  which  you  indulged,  and  justified  the  identity  of 
fame  which  you  trusted  to  it. 

I  ought  to  add  in  relation  to  the  fight  on  James  Island,  / 
on  July  1 6,  —  in  which  the  regiment  lost  fifty  men,  driving 
back  the  rebels  and  saving,  as  it  is  stated,  three  compa- 
nies of  the  Tenth  Connecticut,  —  that  General  Terry,  who 
was  in  command  on  that  Island,  said  to  Adjutant  James: 
"  Tell  your  Colonel  that  I  am  exceedingly  pleased  with 
the  conduct  of  your  regiment.  They  have  done  all  they 

could  do." 

Yours  truly, 

EDWARD  L.  PIERCE. 


The  following  letters  from  General  Butler,  Charles  Sumner,  and 
Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke  are  here  given,  as  showing  not  only 
the  high  esteem  in  which  General  Strong  and  Colonel  Shaw  were 
held,  but  also  the  intense  interest  felt  in  the  fortunes  of  the  Fifty- 
fourth  Regiment :  — 

LOWELL,  July  29,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  A  thousand  thanks  for  your  kindness  to 
poor  Strong  in  his  calamity.  It  has  fastened  another  cord  around 
my  heart  to  yours ;  but,  alas !  it  has  been  all  unavailing.  My 
dear  friend  now  lies  at  the  point  of  death,  and  we  have  ceased 
hoping  against  hope.  Tetanus  (lockjaw)  has  supervened,  and  he 


140  ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER. 

can  recover  only  by  a  miracle,  which  will  scarcely  be  wrought 
even  in  favor  of  one  so  good  and  true.  .  .  . 

I  am  most  truly  yours, 

BENJ.  F.  BUTLER. 
ED.  L.  PIERCE,  ESQ. 


BOSTON,  2Qth  July,  '63. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  I  have  just  read  your  beautiful  and  touch- 
ing letter  on  the  Fifty-fourth  Massachusetts.  Tell  all  that  regiment 
that  you  see,  that  I  honor  them  much.  Sic  itur  ad —  Libertatem  ! 

I  cannot  be  consoled  for  the  loss  of  Shaw.  But  where  better 
could  a  young  commander  die  than  on  the  parapet  of  an  enemy's 
fort  which  he  had  stormed  ?  That  death  will  be  sacred  in  history 
and  in  art.  .  .  . 

Good-by. 

Ever  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 


JAMAICA  PLAIN,  August  8,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  have  followed  your  movements 
with  interest,  so  far  as  they  have  been  made  known  by  what  I  saw 
in  the  newspapers.  Your  letter  to  Governor  Andrew  in  regard  to 
the  Fifty-fourth  Regiment  and  Colonel  Shaw's  death  was  very  valua- 
ble to  us,  as  giving  a  correct  picture  of  that  great  historic  event.  We 
mourn  here  over  one  so  modest  and  manly  that  all  who  knew  him 
honored  and  loved  him.  But  he  has  done  a  noble  work  in  dying, 
and  the  vain  thought  of  the  enemy  to  disgrace  him  by  putting 
him  in  the  same  grave  with  the  negroes  will  only  redound  to  his 
greater  honor.  You  have  seen,  I  suppose,  the  poem  "  Together," 
written  probably  by  Mrs.  Howe.1  .  .  .  Our  eyes  are  fixed  on 
Charleston  with  great  interest.  May  the  good  cause  triumph  this 
time  ! 

Very  truly  yours, 

JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 

1  Mrs.  Anna  C.  S.  Waterston  was  the  author  of  the  ode  to  Colonel  Shaw's 
memory. 


ASSAULT   ON   FORT   WAGNER.  141 

Mr.  Pierce  received  word  September  3,  when  taking  supper  in 
the  tent  of  Colonel  Joseph  R.  Hawley,  —  since  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut and  United  States  Senator  from  that  State,  — that  he  had 
been  appointed  to  an  important  revenue  office  in  Boston,  and  he 
shortly  after  left  the  South  to  enter  on  its  duties.  The  following 
letter  announced  his  appointment :  — 

TREASURY  DEPARTMENT, 
August  22,  1863. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  Our  friend,  Dr.  James  W.  Stone,  is  no 
more.  After  a  brief  illness  (dysentery)  he  died  yesterday.  In  him 
I  lose  a  faithful  friend,  and  the  country  a  faithful  servant.  He  loved 
you,  and  often  spoke  of  you  in  terms  of  warm  affection.  When  I 
last  saw  him,  some  two  weeks  since,  he  said  I  ought  to  have  recom- 
mended your  appointment  to  the  place  he  filled ;  and  I  told  him 
I  should  have  done  so  had  your  name  been  proposed  for  the 
place,  or  a  suggestion  made  to  me  that  the  appointment  would  be 
agreeable  to  you.  In  recommending,  therefore,  your  appointment 
as  his  successor,  I  have  felt  that  I  was,  in  some  sort,  carrying  out 
his  wishes,  and  at  the  same  time  testifying  my  esteem  and  confidence 
in  you  in  a  way  not,  I  hope,  unacceptable.  The  President  has 
signed  your  commission,  and  nothing  remains  but  for  you  to  signify 
your  wishes.  I  hope  you  will  accept.  If  you  do,  please  leave 
your  best  assistant  to  act  in  your  place  temporarily,  and  return  to 
Boston  as  soon  as  practicable.  I  was  in  the  office  at  Boston ;  it 
is  admirably  organized  for  you. 

Cordially  and  always  yours, 

S.  P.  CHASE. 


142  TWO  SYSTEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION. 


V. 


THE  following  is  an  address  delivered  in  the  Town  House,  Mil- 
ton, Mass.,  October  31,  1868,  and  printed  at  the  request  of  Henry 
S.  Russell,  John  M.  Forbes,  James  M.  Robbins,  James  B.  Thayer, 
Joseph  M.  Churchill,  and  other  citizens  of  the  town :  — 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

This  is  not  the  liberty  which  we  can  hope,  that  no  grievance  ever 
should  arise  in  the  commonwealth  :  that  let  no  man  in  this  world  expect  ; 
but  when  complaints  are  freely  heard,  deeply  considered,  and  speedily  re- 
formed, then  is  the  utmost  bound  of  civil  liberty  obtained  that  wise  men 
look  for.  —  JOHN  MILTON. 

HAD  Abraham  Lincoln  lived  to  complete  his  second 
official  term,  far  different  would  have  been  the  political 
condition  of  the  American  people  from  what  it  is  to-day. 
He  commanded  the  confidence  as  well  of  those  who  had 
striven  to  destroy  the  government  as  of  those  who  had 
striven  to  preserve  it.  Magnanimous  and  humane,  he  would, 
beyond  all  other  men,  have  healed  the  wounds  of  civil 
war.  But,  steadfast  as  the  granite  of  your  hills,  he  would 
have  stood  faithfully  by  the  loyal  people  of  the  South,  of 
whatever  race  or  past  condition.  His  influence,  his  great 
name,  his  official  power,  would  have  been  employed  to 
rebuild  society  in  all  the  rebel  territory  upon  the  solid 
masonry  of  justice  and  freedom.  The  prodigal  sons  would 
have  returned,  sad  and  repentant,  to  the  old  family  man- 
sion,—  the  latch-string  still  out,  —  and  they  and  their 
loyal  brethren,  forgiving,  would  have  joined  in  repairing 
the  rents  which  the  war  had  made.  The  two  races  would 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 


143 


have  come  into  kindly  and  co-operative  relations.  The 
Southern  people,  weary  with  war  and  politics,  would  have 
concentrated  their  energies  on  the  reparation  of  their 
broken  fortunes.  They  would  have" devoted  themselves  to 
industrial  pursuits,  to  the  culture  of  the  great  staples  in 
larger  abundance.  Northern  capital  would  have  poured 
into  the  South,  stimulating  enterprise  and  quickening 
industry.  New  lines  of  railroad  would  have  been  built, 
and  existing  lines  pressed  on  to  new  districts.  As  free 
society  tends  to  a  various  development,  and  not  like  slave 
society  to  uniformity,  agricultural  labor  would  have  thriven 
as  never  before;  while  mechanical,  manufacturing,  and 
commercial  enterprise  would  have  sprung  into  vigorous 
life.  Factories  would  have  risen  on  streams  whose  waters 
had  never  before  ministered  to  the  comfort  and  progress 
of  man.  Ten  thousand  forges  and  mills  would  have  been 
creating  untold  wealth  where  now  is  the  silence  of  the 
undisturbed  forest.  The  wilderness  and  solitary  place 
would  have  been  glad,  and  the  desert  have  rejoiced  and 
blossomed  as  the  rose.  The  wharves  of  seaboard  cities 
would  have  been  covered  with  merchandise,  departing  and 
arriving.  As  rights  of  person  and  property  were  respected 
by  public  opinion  and  enforced  by  law,  confidence  would 
have  become  established ;  and  with  this  confidence,  which 
is  to  commercial  life  what  the  blood  is  to  the  body,  would 
have  come  ready  loans,  inflowing  capital,  and  a  steady 
immigration.  This  new  and  assured  prosperity  at  the 
South  —  this  recovery  of  a  disabled  member  —  would  have 
brought  health  again  to  the  whole  country.  The  honor  of 
the  nation  and  its  ability  to  pay  its  debts  would  have  been 
unquestioned.  With  a  vast  production,  as  yet  without  a 
parallel  in  our  history,  taxation  as  well  by  customs  as  by 
internal  duties  would  have  been  no  longer  burdensome. 
Increased  exports  would  have  turned  the  balance  of  trade 


144  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

in  our  favor.  The  national  notes  would  have  appreciated 
to  par  with  gold,  putting  mercantile  life  on  a  surer  foot- 
ing, and  reducing  the  cost  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  —  to 
the  great  relief  of  laboring  and  salaried  men.  With  the 
national  credit  thus  established  at  home  and  abroad,  the 
national  bonds  would  have  been  funded  at  a  lower  rate  of 
interest;  and  thus  a  controversy  would  have  been  impos- 
sible which  has  imperilled  our  credit,  if  not  our  reputation 
for  national  morality. 

This  industrial  regeneration  would  have  modified  politi- 
cal antagonisms.  There  might  have  been  discussion,  even 
earnest  discussion,  but  there  would  have  been  none  of  the 
heated  strife  which  we  now  witness.  There  would  have 
come  an  era  of  good  feeling,  such  as  was  witnessed  at  the 
inauguration  of  the  government;  such  as  followed  the  last 
war  with  Great  Britain.  The  good  President  would  have 
been  offered  a  third  term,  but,  like  Washington  before 
him,  he  would  have  declined  it;  and  he  would  have  gone 
back  to  the  home  at  Springfield  which  he  loved,  followed 
by  the  benedictions  of  his  countrymen.  The  people,  by  a 
universal  instinct,  would  have  turned  for  his  successor  to 
General  Grant,  who  had  earned  their  gratitude  and  confi- 
dence in  the  field  as  Lincoln  had  earned  them  in  the  cab- 
inet. He  would  have  been  chosen  as  our  first  magistrate, 
not  as  the  candidate  of  a  party,  but  as  the  candidate  of  all 
the  people. 

But  this  fair  picture  was  not  to  be.  The  pistol  of  the 
assassin  changed  the  course  of  history.  A  President  suc- 
ceeded —  the  creature  of  an  accident  —  whose  wicked  and 
perverse  policy  fired  again  the  Southern  heart,  organized 
afresh  the  rebel  party,  and  stimulated  it  with  the  hope  of 
gaining  by  craft  what  it  had  lost  in  war.  The  three  years 
and  a  half  which  succeeded  the  surrender  of  the  rebel 
armies  have  been  years  of  misgovernment,  barbarous  legis- 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  145 

lation,  disorder,  anarchy,  persecution  of  loyal  men,  mur- 
ders of  good  citizens  as  frequent  as  once  a  day  in  a  State, 
or  even  in  a  county;  massacres  like  those  of  Norfolk, 
Memphis,  Mobile,  and  New  Orleans;  bands  of  assassins 
organized  into  Ku-Klux  clans,  and  openly  recognized  as 
the  allies  of  the  unsubdued  rebel  party.  Every  morning's 
newspaper  brings  a  fresh  tale  of  crime  and  outrage. 
To-day,  instead  of  being  a  united  people,  devoted  to  the 
development  of  our  resources,  we  are  meeting  such  ques- 
tions as  these :  Shall  there  be  peace  or  war  in  ten  States 
of  this  Union?  Shall  protection  of  person  and  property, 
or  violence,  rapine,  and  anarchy  prevail  there?  Shall  the 
just  and  liberal  governments  which  have  been  there  estab- 
lished remain;  or  shall  they,  as  demanded  by  Mr.  Blair  in 
his  Broadhead  letter,  and  implied  in  the  platform  of  his 
party,  be  overturned  by  the  military  and  unconstitutional 
order  of  the  President,  and  all  society  be  remanded  into 
chaos? 

Fellow-citizens,  the  issues  of  the  rebellion  are  still  alive. 
The  forces  of  the  paroled  Confederates,  reinforced  by 
Northern  allies,  have  reorganized  as  murderous  clans  and 
desperate  revolutionists.  It  is  another  —  let  us  hope,  the 
last  —  battle  of  the  war.  If  you  have  any  love  for  your 
country,  any  gratitude  to  our  patriot  soldiers  living  or 
dead,  any  interest  in  social  order  as  the  father  of  a  family 
or  the  owner  of  property,  —  whatever  may  have  been  your 
affiliations  in  the  past,  and  whatever  they  may  be  in  the 
future,  —  your  patriotism,  your  good  name,  and  your 
safety  all  adjure  you  to  give  your  vote  on  Tuesday  next 
for  the  Republican  candidates. 

Never  did  soldiers  go  home  from  battle-fields  with  a 
prouder  consciousness  of  duty  done  than  did  ours,  when 
in  the  summer  of  1865  they  laid  aside  their  muskets  and 
returned  to  their  kindred  and  the  employments  of  peace. 


146  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

The  military  power  of  the  greatest  rebellion  recorded  in 
history  had  been  smitten  to  the  dust.  The  nation  had  been 
rescued  from  imminent  dismemberment ;  its  unity,  integrity, 
and  glory  had  been  maintained.  Never  before  did  it  rank 
so  high  in  the  family  of  nations.  Despotic  dynasties  trem- 
bled, and  oppressed  races  and  classes  took  heart,  as  its 
victory  was  heralded.  Triumphant  over  domestic  foes, 
over  States  within  itself  banded  together  for  its  overthrow, 
it  had  proved  itself  the  strongest  just  where  friends  and 
enemies  alike  supposed  it  to  be  the  weakest.  It  had  won 
strength  and  achieved  perpetuity  in  the  very  struggle  in 
which  its  doom  was  anticipated. 

But  all  was  not  yet  accomplished.  A  work,  calling  for 
higher  wisdom  and  even  higher  virtue  than  the  levying  of 
troops,  the  raising  of  supplies,  and  the  conduct  of  armies, 
still  remained. 

"  Yet  much  remains 

To  conquer  still ;  peace  hath  her  victories 
No  less  renown'd  than  war." 

The  rebellion  had  "  in  its  revolutionary  progress  de- 
prived the  people  of  all  civil  government."  Such  were 
the  terms  used  by  President  Johnson  in  his  proclamations 
for  the  appointment  of  provisional  governors  for  the  rebel 
States,  and  for  once  I  can  quote  him  with  approval.  There 
were  no  constitutional  officers  of  any  kind,  —  no  govern- 
ors, no  legislatures,  no  judiciary,  no  executive  officers,  no 
one  to  receive  a  vote  or  administer  an  oath :  all  had  been 
swept  into  the  vortex  of  rebellion.  There  had  succeeded 
de  facto  governments,  but  they  were  alien  and  hostile,  the 
creation  of  public  enemies ;  and  they  fell  with  the  rebel- 
lion itself.  It  was  a  tabula  rasa,  just  like  the  slate  when  a 
boy  has  rubbed  out  the  figures  of  one  sum,  and  before 
he  has  begun  another.  There  remained  so  many  square 
miles  of  land;  so  many  people  upon  them;  so  many 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  147 

State  lines,  if  you  please,  —  but  no  governments.  These 
had  been  utterly  destroyed  in  fact  —  not  of  right,  to  be 
sure  —  by  the  rebellion,  and  the  fall  of  the  rebellion  could 
not  reanimate  them.  It  was  necessary  upon  this  vacant, 
this  deserted  field  to  re-create  civil  governments,  —  gov- 
ernments adapted  to  the  changed  condition  of  affairs; 
governments  which  would  secure  the  fruits  of  the  war, 
and  fortify  the  nation  against  another  rebellion;  govern- 
ments which  would  respect  and  fulfil  the  pledges  made 
during  the  war  to  the  national  creditors,  to  the  freedmen, 
and  to  the  loyal  white  men  of  the  South. 

Great  as  was  the  work  of  suppressing  the  rebellion,  the 
work  of  restoring  civil  governments  was  no  less  great. 
Our  European  friends  during  the  war  often  expressed 
misgivings  on  this  point.  They  said:  You  may,  by  your 
superior  numbers  and  resources,  disperse  the  armed  forces 
of  the  rebellion,  but  after  that,  whence  are  to  come  the 
loyal  hearts  which  are  to  uphold  civil  governments  at  the 
South? 

"  Who  overcomes 
By  force,  hath  overcome  but  half  his  foe." 

If  you  undertake  to  govern  the  Southern  States  perma- 
nently as  conquered  provinces,  you  will  fill  your  national 
system  with  the  spirit  of  absolutism  which  will  destroy 
your  free  institutions,  as  well  at  the  North  as  at  the  South. 
This  was  no  idle  fear.  We  saw  the  danger,  but  we  saw 
also  the  methods  of  guarding  against  it.  We  proposed 
the  restoration  of  civil  governments  based  on  the  loyal 
people  of  the  South ;  and  these  we  expected  to  find  in  the 
white  men  who  had  been  among  the  faithless  faithful 
found ;  in  repentant  rebels  who  had  been  swept  into  the 
rebellion  by  a  furious  current;  in  the  colored  population, 
universally  loyal ;  and  in  emigrants  from  the  North  and 
from  Europe. 


148  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

As  the  result  of  the  war,  —  of  the  great  upheaval  of  pop- 
ulation, the  dissolution  of  business  and  local  ties,  the  new 
spirit  of  adventure  awakened,  the  extraordinary  interest  in 
cotton  culture  prevailing  in  all  civilized  countries,  —  there 
was  anticipated  an  emigration  to  the  Southern  States  no 
parallel  to  which  has  been  known  since  the  populous 
tribes  of  the  North,  fifteen  centuries  ago,  descended  on  the 
vineyards  of  Italy  and  Spain.  The  war  —  the  accounts  of 
battles,  sieges,  marches  —  had  instructed  our  people  in 
the  geography  of  that  vast  country  stretching  from  the 
Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande.  As  our  affections  and  patri- 
otism for  four  years  travelled  and  lingered  over  it,  places 
heretofore  all  unknown  became  as  familiar  to  us  as  the 
hamlets  of  our  birth.  Our  soldiers  on  their  marches,  their 
bivouacs,  and  by  their  camp-fires  had  seen  the  fatness  of 
the  land,  and  had  already  designated  upon  it  their  future 
homes.  Thither  thousands  of  them  were  likely  to  go, 
preferring,  after  their  unsettled  life,  to  set  up  in  business 
for  themselves,  rather  than  again  to  enter  the  service  of 
others  in  the  places  of  their  former  residence.  Becoming 
thus  citizens  of  the  territory  which  their  valor  had  saved  to 
the  Union,  they  would  be  like  the  garrisons  which  Rome 
planted  in  the  countries  traversed  by  her  eagles.  An 
increased  immigration  from  Europe,  attracted  by  the  pros- 
pect of  profitable  industry  applied  to  the  great  staples  of 
Southern  production,  was  promised.  The  tide  of  advan- 
cing population  had,  in  its  westward  course,  reached  the 
less  available  and  as  yet  less  accessible  territories  beyond 
the  Mississippi,  and  was  likely  to  turn  in  a  southern 
direction. 

These  different  sources  —  the  Unionists  of  the  South, 
white  and  black,  our  own  soldiers,  and  emigrants  from  the 
North  and  from  Europe  —  would  have  furnished  ample 
foundations  for  a  loyal  society.  Even  the  great  mass  of 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  149 

Southern  men,  under  a  steady  hand,  would  have  proved 
plastic  material.  Resignation  to  the  inevitable  is  a  law  of 
human  nature ;  and  with  that  resignation  come  reflections 
that,  after  all,  it  is  a  better  lot  than  the  one  we  would  have 
chosen.  A  strong  and  just  government  would  have  made 
submission  a  necessity.  A  healthy  reaction  would  have 
succeeded  the  intense  political  excitements  of  preceding 
years.  The  pressure  of  material  wants,  always  controlling 
in  the  long  run,  would  have  moderated  and  even  extin- 
guished the  animosities  of  section  and  race.  Violent 
spirits  would  have  disappeared,  lost  in  emigration  to 
Mexico,  South  America,  and  Cuba,  or  in  retirement  from 
all  public  activities.  The  mass  of  the  people  would  have 
become  disgusted  with  the  agitators  who  had  brought  on 
them  poverty,  bereavement,  and  dishonor,  and  would  have 
gathered  about  new  chiefs.  Society  would  have  crystal- 
lized around  the  thoughts,  the  enterprises,  and  the  associa- 
tions of  freedom.  The  effects  of  slavery  and  the  rebellion 
might  have  been  traceable  for  a  generation;  but  stable 
and  loyal  governments,  affording  reasonable  protection  to 
persons  and  property,  would  have  been  possible  in  one, 
two,  or  three  years.  The  movement  of  modern  life  is  so 
rapid,  that  what  once  took  a  century  for  its  consummation 
may  now  be  reached  in  a  decade.  What  once  required  a 
generation  may  now  be  realized  in  a  year. 

All  these  reasonable  expectations,  fondly  cherished  in 
patriotic  hearts,  were  defeated  by  the  malignant  policy  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  backed  by  that  portion  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  which  had  openly  or  secretly  patronized  the 
rebellion. 

But  whose  constitutional  prerogative  was  it  to  determine 
when,  how,  by  whom,  and  upon  what  conditions  these  new 
civil  governments  should  be  organized  where  none  ex- 
isted? Clearly,  it  was  that  of  the  loyal  people  of  the 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

country,  who  had  fought  the  battles,  paid  the  bills,  and 
undergone  the  sufferings  of  the  war.  It  belonged  to  them, 
for  they  had  saved  the  territory  to  the  nation,  —  not  to 
the  rebels  who  had  strained  every  nerve  to  wrest  it  away. 
It  belonged  to  the  whole  loyal  people  of  the  country  as 
represented  in  Congress,  and  through  that  body  express- 
ing their  united  will  and  their  common  wisdom,  —  not  to 

o 

any  one  man,  certainly  not  to  a  magistrate  whose  business 
it  is  to  execute  and  not  to  make  the  laws.  To  frame  a 
government  is  the  highest  effort  of  human  wisdom,  one 
that  has  made  the  founders  of  states  illustrious  in  human 
annals.  The  American  people  never  intrusted  it  even  to 
Washington,  far  less  would  they  intrust  it  to  Johnson.  It 
was  the  right  of  the  whole  people, — and  as  ours  is  a 
representative  government  they  could  act  only  through 
Congress,  —  it  was  their  right  to  say  what  was  the  best 
time  and  mode  of  restoration,  and  what  securities  were 
essential  to  prevent  another  rebellion  and  to  fulfil  the 
national  promises.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  President,  hos- 
tilities having  closed  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
to  have  preserved  by  means  of  the  military  forces  peace, 
order,  and  security  through  the  rebel  territory,  awaiting 
the  next  session  when  that  body  in  its  wisdom  might  have 
initiated  measures  of  restoration.  If  there  was  any  ap- 
parent necessity  for  earlier  action,  an  extra  session  might 
have  been  called. 

But  the  President  decided  upon  a  far  different  course. 
On  May  29,  only  sixteen  days  after  the  last  collision 
between  the  loyal  and  the  rebel  forces,  —  less  than  seven 
weeks  after  his  own  accession,  —  President  Johnson  issued 
a  proclamation  appointing  a  provisional  governor  for 
North  Carolina,  and  providing  for  a  constitutional  conven- 
tion in  that  State,  and  shortly  after  issued  others  of  like 
tenor  for  the  organization  of  governments  in  the  other 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  151 

rebel  States.  He  undertook  at  the  outset  to  say  who 
should  be  enfranchised  as  electors,  who  should  be  eli- 
gible to  office,  who  should  form  the  constitutions  and 
what  kind  of  constitutions  they  should  be.  While  the 
conventions  were  in  session,  he  dictated  their  action  by 
telegraphic  despatches.  At  first,  in  a  telegram  of  Mr. 
Seward  to  Governor  Marvin  of  Florida,  of  September  12, 
1865,  he  stated  that  these  proceedings  were  to  be  subject 
to  the  revision  of  Congress.  But  subsequently,  upon  the 
assembling  of  that  body,  he  denied  its  power  to  alter, 
revise,  or  supplement  his  work ;  and  because  it  would  not 
admit  to  seats  the  mere  creatures  of  his  usurpation,  who 
styled  themselves  representatives  and  senators,  he  stigma- 
tized it  as  a  "  rump  congress  "  and  "  hanging  on  the  verge 
of  the  government."  As  his  power  to  do  all  this  was 
questioned,  he  became  belligerent,  insolent,  defiant.  This 
was  Caesarism ;  this  was  absolutism  of  the  most  danger- 
ous character.  No  constitutional  monarch  in  our  day  has 
asserted  such  imperial  prerogatives.  For  doing  less  than 
this,  when  you  consider  the  difference  of  system  then  and 
now  prevailing,  one  king  of  England  lost  his  head  and 
another  his  crown.  The  people  looked  on  with  amaze- 
ment at  the  usurpation.  But  so  apprehensive  were  they 
at  that  critical  hour  of  any  conflict  between  the  executive 
and  legislative  departments,  so  reluctant  were  they  to  take 
issue  with  a  magistrate  who  a  few  months  before  had  re- 
ceived their  votes,  that  they  were  disposed  to  submit  to 
the  usurpation,  provided  the  governments  thus  organized 
proved  to  be  just  and  liberal,  and  in  that  event  to  overlook 
their  illegitimate,  unconstitutional,  and  monarchical  ori- 
gin. The  conventions  thus  called,  met  during  the  autumn 
of  1865  and  framed  constitutions.  Legislatures,  in  pursu- 
ance of  their  authority,  met  during  that  autumn  and  the 
following  winter,  and  formed  codes  of  laws.  And  what 
was  the  result? 


152  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF  RECONSTRUCTION. 

The  first  effect  of  President  Johnson's  policy  was  to 
reanimate  and  reorganize  the  whole  rebel  element.  He 
had,  without  interposing  any  proper  period  of  reflection, 
without  any  reasonable  pause  after  the  bitterness  of  civil 
war,  admitted  to  political  power  the  great  mass  of  those 
recently  in  arms  against  the  government,  and  had  intro- 
duced no  new  force  to  balance  and  counteract  them.  He 
removed  at  once  all  their  fears  of  punishment,  and  stimu- 
lated afresh  their  hopes  of  domination.  Instead  of  build- 
ing their  fences  and  working  their  crops,  they  flocked  to 
corner  groceries  and  court-house  squares  for  the  discus- 
sion of  politics.  They  saw  an  opportunity  to  gain  by 
craft  what  they  had  lost  in  war,  —  and  with  the  passion 
for  dominion  still  lingering,  it  is  not  strange  that  they 
seized  it.  They  became  self-conscious,  aggressive,  intol- 
erant. Where  there  was  quiet,  submission,  and  acquies- 
cence in  May,  there  was  disorder,  resistance,  and  defiance 
in  November.  Where  in  May  they  were  resigned  to  any 
fate  which  should  be  meted  out  to  them  as  a  vanquished 
party, — such  as  the  civil  and  political  equality  of  the 
freedmen,  and  even  their  own  exclusion  from  political 
power,  esteeming  themselves  fortunate  if  permitted  to 
retain  their  estates  and  to  live  in  the  country,  —  they 
began  in  November  to  threaten  another  rebellion  unless 
the  old  masters  were  allowed  unlimited  power,  under  ap- 
prentice, vagrant,  and  labor  laws,  to  reduce  the  freedmen 
to  a  degraded  subordination.  They  enacted  statutes,  with 
grievous  restrictions  and  heavy  penalties,  which  were  made 
applicable  to  freedmen  alone,  and  not  to  all  citizens. 
Forced  to  accept  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  a  legal  state- 
ment, they  sought  to  preserve  slavery  as  a  social  fact. 
They  undertook  with  systematic  violence  to  drive  from 
the  South  law-abiding  citizens  of  the  North, —  many  of 
them  patriot  soldiers,  scarred  with  honorable  wounds  re- 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 


153 


ceived  in  the  service  of  the  country,  —  who  went  there  in 
the  exercise  of  their  inalienable  right  to  live  where  they 
please.  With  the  ferocity  of  wild  beasts,  they  hunted 
down  the  Union  men  who  had  resisted  the  pressure  of 
treason,  and  who  had  hailed  the  old  flag  waving  at  the 
head  of  our  advancing  armies. 

The  Johnson  governments  excluded  colored  men  from 
suffrage,  —  thus  denying  them  representation  while  tax- 
ing them.  They  excluded  them  from  the  jury  panel, — 
thus  denying  them  a  trial  by  their  peers.  They  admitted 
the  colored  witness  to  testify  only  in  a  limited  class  of 
cases,  —  a  discrimination  which  had  the  effect  of  making 
him  a  discredited  and  impeached  witness  even  when  he 
was  admitted.  They  made  no  provision  for  the  education 
of  the  colored  people  save  in  Florida,  —  thus  endeavoring 
to  keep  a  whole  race  in  ignorance.  They  undertook  upon 
system,  by  means  of  apprentice  and  vagrant  laws,  to  re- 
vive slavery.  Under  the  apprentice  laws  as  administered, 
any  planter  could  obtain  the  unwilling  labor  of  his  former 
slaves  who  were  still  minors.  These  laws  allowed  the 
judge  of  probate  to  bind  out  children  whose  parents  were 
unable  or  refused  to  support  them,  giving  the  preference 
to  the  old  master;  and  the  courts  required  no  proper 
proof  of  such  inability  and  refusal. 

The  Johnson  governments  constructed  an  elaborate  sys- 
tem for  preventing  the  colored  people  from  being  masters 
of  their  time,  and  for  keeping  them  constantly  under  the 
will  and  jurisdiction  of  the  planters.  They  made  it  a  crimi- 
nal offence,  an  act  of  vagrancy,  punishable  with  fine  and 
imprisonment,  for  a  freedman  to  leave  his  employer  before 
the  expiration  of  a  term  of  service  prescribed  in  a  written 
contract.  Such  was  the  legislation  of  Alabama,  Florida, 
and  Mississippi.  It  was  made  a  criminal  offence  in  Ala- 


154      TWO  SYSTEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION. 

bama,  Florida,  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  and  Texas  for  any 
person  to  entice  away  such  laborer,  or  after  he  had  left 
his  employer  to  employ,  harbor,  feed,  or  clothe  him. 
What  should  we  think  of  a  law  here  which  should  send 
to  the  house  of  correction  for  a  year  a  farm-laborer  failing 
to  carry  out  his  contract  to  serve  his  employer,  and  which 
should  send  there  also  the  farmer  who  employed  him  after 
such  breach  of  contract?  Furthermore,  under  the  same 
Act  every  civil  officer  was  required  and  every  person 
authorized,  by  main  force  and  without  legal  process,  to 
take  back  such  a  deserting  laborer  to  his  employer,  and 
was  to  receive  for  the  service  five  dollars,  and  ten  cents  a 
mile  for  travel. 

In  Mississippi,  a  freedman  was  declared  a  vagrant  for 
"  exercising  the  functions  of  a  minister  of  the  gospel  with- 
out a  license  from  some  regularly  organized  church." 
This  was  intended  to  shut  the  mouths  of  negro  preachers 
who  were  disposed  to  instruct  their  brethren  in  the  rights 
and  duties  of  freemen.  Another  Act  of  the  same  State 
declared  freedmen  "  found  unlawfully  assembling  them- 
selves together,  either  in  the  day  or  night  time,"  to  be 
vagrants,  —  thus  aiming  particularly  at  Republican  meet- 
ings and  loyal  leagues.  The  same  Act  declared  that 
"  white  persons  usually  associating  themselves  with  freed- 
men, free  negroes,  or  mulattoes,  on  terms  of  equality,  shall 
be  deemed  vagrants,"  —  thus  aiming  at  the  teachers  of 
freedmen  who  taught  their  children  by  day  and  could  not 
obtain  board  with  white  families.  An  Act  of  Louisiana 
made  it  a  criminal  offence  to  "  enter  upon  any  plantation 
without  the  permission  of  the  owner  or  agent," — thus 
aiming  at  Republican  canvassers  and  teachers  of  freedmen, 
and  designing  to  keep  plantation  negroes  in  utter  ignor- 
ance of  their  rights.  In  Florida,  it  was  made  a  criminal 
offence  for  a  negro  to  "  intrude  himself  into  any  religious 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  155 

or  other  public  assembly  of  white  persons,  or  into  any 
railroad  car  or  other  public  vehicle  set  apart  for  the  ex- 
clusive accommodation  of  white  people,"  upon  convic- 
tion of  which  he  should  be  "  sentenced  to  stand  in  the 
pillory  for  one  hour,  or  be  whipped  not  exceeding  thirty- 
nine  stripes,  or  both  at  the  discretion  of  the  jury." 
What  think  you  of  that  provision,  — you  who  for  curi- 
osity or  information  are  accustomed  to  frequent  public 
meetings? 

In  furtherance  of  the  same  purpose  to  reduce  the  freed- 
men  to  a  degraded  subordination  by  attaching  them  to  the 
soil  and  keeping  them  under  the  constant  will  of  employ- 
ers, the  planters  enacted  a  law  in  Mississippi  forbidding 
a  negro  from  doing  "  irregular  and  job  work "  without  a 
license  from  the  municipal  authorities ;  and  another  in 
South  Carolina  forbidding  him  to  practise  "  the  art,  trade, 
or  business  of  an  artisan,  mechanic,  or  shopkeeper,  or 
any  other  trade,  employment,  or  business  (besides  that 
of  husbandry  or  that  of  a  servant  under  a  contract  for 
service  or  labor),  on  his  own  account  or  for  his  own  bene- 
fit, or  in  partnership  with  a  white  person,"  without  a 
license  (to  expire  in  a  year)  from  the  district  court. 
What  free  society  tolerates  such  functions  in  judges, 
mayors,  and  selectmen?  Is  a  man  a  freeman,  unless  he 
can  follow  any  honest,  useful  calling  that  he  chooses, 
without  let  or  hindrance? 

In  Louisiana,  the  freedman  as  a  laborer  was  finable  for 
"  failing  to  obey  reasonable  orders,"  "  absence  from  home 
without  leave,"  "  impudence,"  and  the  like,  —  as  if  the 
employer  were  still  a  slaveholder  and  the  laborer  still  a 
slave. 

In  Florida,  it  was  made  a  criminal  offence,  punishable 
with  pillory  and  stripes,  for  a  negro  to  own,  use,  or  keep  in 
his  possession  or  under  his  control  "  any  bowie-knife,  dirk, 


156  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

sword,  firearms,  or  ammunition  of  any  kind,"  without  a 
license  from  the  judge  of  probate;  and  a  similar  Act  was 
passed  in  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina.  The  object  of 
these  Acts  was  to  make  the  negro  race  utterly  defence- 
less, and  to  put  them  by  day  and  by  night  at  the  mercy 
of  ruffians  and  assassins  acting  independently  or  organ- 
ized as  clans.  Does  not  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  affirm  "  the  right  of  the  people  to  keep  and  bear 
arms"?  And  have  you  not  the  right  to  keep  a  pistol 
under  your  pillow  for  the  protection  of  yourself  and 
family?  And  has  not  every  other  man,  white  and  black, 
that  same  right?  Does  anybody  deny  that  right  except 
Johnson  lawgivers  and  Seymour  partisans? 

Punishments  odious,  unusual,  and  excessive,  degrading 
alike  to  society  and  to  the  victims,  which  have  been  dis- 
owned in  civilized  States, —  such  as  chain-gangs,  stocks, 
whipping-posts,  pillories,  sale  at  public  outcry  to  the  high- 
est bidder,  —  were  prescribed  for  the  freedmen.  These 
you  will  find  in  the  legislation  of  Alabama,  Florida,  and 
Mississippi. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  State  of  Mississippi  to  devise  the 
most  ingenious  methods  for  outlawing  and  crushing  the 
colored  population.  One  Act  of  the  Legislature  allowed 
the  colored  man  to  complain  of  a  white  man  for  an  offence 
committed  upon  him.  Great  privilege  that!  But  lest  the 
colored  man,  destitute,  disfranchised,  landless,  friendless, 
homeless,  should  thereby  take  advantage  of  white  men, 
who  were  rich,  skilled  in  organization,  and  making  all  the 
laws,  another  Act  was  passed  a  few  days  later,  —  that  if  on 
the  trial  of  such  complaint  sufficient  proof  were  made  to 
the  court  or  jury  that  it  had  been  made  falsely  and  mali- 
ciously, the  court  should  in  that  very  trial  render  a  judg- 
ment against  such  freedman,  free  negro,  or  mulatto,  and 
impose  on  him  a  fine  not  exceeding  fifty  dollars,  and  im- 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  157 

prisonment  not  exceeding  twenty  days ;  and  for  failure  to 
pay  the  fine  and  costs,  the  sheriff  was  directed  to  hire  him 
out  at  public  outcry  for  a  period  necessary  to  discharge 
fine,  costs,  and  jail  fees  ! 

Look  upon  this  barbarous  provision !  I  know  well 
enough  that  just  codes  provide  for  the  punishment  of  ma- 
licious prosecutions,  provisions  however  rarely  invoked  in 
the  administration  of  criminal  law;  but  this  is  inflicted  only 
in  independent  proceedings,  where  the  malice  is  the  direct 
and  single  issue  of  the  case,  and  where  the  defendant  is 
shielded  by  the  beneficent  presumptions  of  the  criminal 
law :  never  is  it,  and  never  should  it  be,  inflicted  on  the  trial 
of  the  prosecution  which  is  claimed  to  have  been  malicious. 
Imagine  an  instance  under  this  Mississippi  Act.  A  negro 
enters  a  county  court-room  to  complain  of  his  employer 
for  putting  out  his  eye  or  maiming  him  for  life.  Perhaps 
he  was  one  of  that  heroic  band  who  assaulted  Port  Hud- 
son ;  perhaps  he  was  by  the  side  of  Colonel  Shaw  as  he 
charged  upon  Fort  Wagner;  perhaps  he  was  one  of  the 
thirty  thousand  colored  soldiers  who  made  a  third  or 
fourth  of  Grant's  army  before  Richmond  in  the  last  winter 
of  the  war;  or  it  may  have  been  he  who  aided  your  son  to 
escape  from  Andersonville,  and  saved  him  from  starvation 
and  recapture.  Whether  he  be  one  of  these  or  not,  he  is 
at  least  one  whose  freedom  the  proclamation  of  President 
Lincoln  pledged  the  government  to  "  recognize  and  main- 
tain." The  injured  man  looks  about  him  -in  that  court- 
room, but  sees  no  friendly  face,  —  no  lawyer  who  cares  to 
breast  the  wrath  of  the  only  class  who  have  money  to  pay 
fees.  He  looks  at  the  judge,  and  he  sees  in  him  a  Con- 
federate colonel ;  or,  worse  yet,  a  Confederate  editor,  too 
cowardly  to  fight  against  his  country,  and  just  mean 
enough  to  slander  her  at  a  safe  distance.  He  looks  at  the 
jury,  but  they  are  not  his  peers,  —  all  of  another  race,  all 


158  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

leagued  to  keep  him  in  subjection;  the  very  men  who 
have  made  the  inhuman  laws  I  have  referred  to.  The 
trial  proceeds.  The  colored  man  tells  his  story  in  broken 
speech,  but  with  truthful  lips.  The  white  man  denies  all, 
and  of  course  his  word  is  taken.  The  jury  and  the  judge 
mean  that  negroes  shall  be  taught  a  lesson  for  complain- 
ing of  the  men  of  their  class.  They  acquit  the  defendant, 
and  then,  as  a  part  of  the  same  verdict  and  judgment,  sen- 
tence to  fine  and  imprisonment  the  negro  complainant  for 
a  malicious  prosecution.  My  God  !  The  judgment  hall 
of  Pilate,  with  a  Roman  soldiery  for  executioners,  lights 
up  with  justice  by  the  side  of  this  Mississippi  tribunal ! 

The  ruling  classes  to  whom  President  Johnson  had  con- 
fided political  power  undertook  to  prevent  the  colored 
people  from  ever  becoming  proprietors  of  the  soil,  in 
order  to  make  their  subjection  permanent  and  complete. 
Their  condition,  even  if  favored  by  the  laws,  was  hard  at 
the  best.  They  came  out  of  slavery  without  property, 
without  an  inch  of  real  estate,  without  personal  chattels  or 
a  dollar  in  their  po"ckets.  They  were  liable  on  any  day  to 
expulsion  from  their  cabins.  They  could  not  draw  water 
from  a  well  or  a  spring  if  the  planter  refused  permission. 
The  greatest  mistake  made  by  Congress  was  in  not  secur- 
ing to  them  a  fair  opportunity  to  become  the  owners  of 
small  parcels  of  real  estate.  This  should  have  been  done, 
—  not  perhaps  by  confiscation  of  the  planters'  estates  and 
the  donation  thereof  to  the  freedmen,  but  in  the  exercise 
of  the  right  of  eminent  domain  and  of  the  rights  of  war, 
enforcing  conveyances  upon  the  payment  of  an  assessed 
valuation.  It  was  the  determination  of  the  planters,  how- 
ever, that  the  colored  people  should  have  no  chance 
to  become  independent  of  employers,  and  that  they 
should  have  no  incentive  to  save  their  earnings.  They 
therefore  everywhere  made  combinations  not  to  sell  them 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  159 

land.  Not  content  with  this,  they  denied  them  in  Missis- 
sippi, by  express  provision  of  law,  "  the  right  to  acquire 
and  dispose  of  real  property ;  "  and  still  further,  they  pro- 
vided that  no  freedman,  free  negro,  or  mulatto  should  ever 
"  rent  or  lease  any  lands  or  tenements  except  in  incorpor- 
ated towns  or  cities,  in  which  places  the  corporate  authori- 
ties shall  control  the  same."  I  challenge  you  to  find  a 
parallel  to  this  legislative  enormity  in  any  other  country 
in  modern  times.  Let  us  look  at  the  import  of  this 
provision  more  closely. 

The  desire  for  land — to  have  one  spot  on  earth  where 
a  man  may  stand,  and  whence  no  human  being  may  of 
right  drive  him  —  is  one  of  the  healthiest  and  most  con- 
servative instincts  of  our  nature.  The  people  who  have 
it  are  no  longer  nomadic ;  they  have  taken  a  great  step 
in  progressive  civilization.  Nor  can  free  institutions  last 
in  a  country  unless  a  large  proportion  of  the  population 
are  proprietors  of  the  soil  they  live  upon.  If  there  is  any 
axiom  in  political  philosophy,  this  is  one.  I  do  not  affect 
classical  learning  when  I  say  —  what  every  student  of  his- 
tory will  join  with  me  in  maintaining  —  that  the  fatal  hour 
of  Roman  liberty  came  when  the  Gracchi,  the  greatest 
and  best  of  her  reformers,  failed  to  secure  for  the  landless 
peasantry  of  Italy  some  portion  of  the  public  domain. 
"  Great  plantations  destroyed  Italy  and  the  provinces," 
wrote  the  elder  Pliny.1  Compare,  if  you  will,  the  agricul- 
tural population  of  Holland,  where  the  farmers  own  the 
lands  they  till,  with  that  of  Ireland,  where  they  do  not. 
There  is  thrift  and  intelligence  in  the  one ;  there  is  waste 
and  degeneracy  in  the  other.  So  important,  so  vital  to 
the  common  weal  has  this  principle  become,  that  in  Eng- 
land —  a  country  where  vested  interests  are  accorded 

1  Verumque  confitentibus  latifundia  perdidere  Italiam,  jam  vero  et 
provincias. 


160  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF  RECONSTRUCTION. 

a  peculiar  sacredness  —  John  Stuart  Mill  proposes  an 
interference  with  titles  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  for 
the  Irish  tenantry  an  interest,  if  only  a  tenant's  interest  at 
a  fixed  rent,  in  the  soil  they  cultivate.1  Fellow-citizens, 
he  is  not  a  statesman,  he  is  hardly  a  civilized  man,  who 
does  not  recognize  this  primary,  this  most  beneficent  in- 
stinct of  human  nature.  How  a  man  loves  his  home,  — 
the  hearthstone  consecrated  by  family  affection ;  the  tree 
he  has  planted,  whose  fruit  he  plucks,  and  under  whose 
shadow  he  rests;  the  vines  he  has  trained;  the  brook 
whose  flowing  waters  delight  his  eye  and  whose  music 
soothes  his  weariness !  —  howsoever  mean  and  lowly  that 
home  may  be,  he  loves  it,  for  it  is  his  own.  One  of  the 
finest  bursts  of  British  eloquence  was  Lord  Chatham's, 
when  he  said :  "  The  poorest  man  may  in  his  cottage  bid 
defiance  to  all  the  forces  of  the  Crown.  It  may  be  frail ; 
its  roof  may  shake  ;  the  winds  of  heaven  may  blow  through 
every  cranny;  the  storm  may  enter;  the  rain  may  enter; 
but  the  king  of  England  cannot  enter  !  All  his  force  dares 
not  cross  the  threshold  of  the  ruined  tenement !  "  Alas, 
fellow-citizens,  for  the  country  that  has  not  and  never 
hopes  to  have  a  population  of  small  landed  proprietors 
clinging  to  its  soil  and  sharing  in  its  government !  Alas 
for  the  country  that,  once  having  them,  has  parted  with 
them  forever,  —  their  farms  swallowed  up  in  great  planta- 
tions, and  themselves  reduced  to  beggary  or  driven  to 
better  governed  and  more  favored  lands  !  As  well  attempt 
to  raise  the  columns  of  St.  Peter's  on  a  pyramid  of  sand, 
as  to  build  free  institutions  on  great  aristocratic  estates. 
Now,  these  barbarians  of  the  South  —  they  deserve  no 
milder  term  —  conspired  by  means  of  laws  and  combi- 

1  As  is  well  known,  since  the  date  of  this  address  Parliament  has  passed 
successive  radical  measures  interfering  with  the  property  of  landlords  for 
the  benefit  of  tenants. 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  i6l 

nations  to  uproot  one  of  the  finest  instincts  of  human 
nature,  and  to  keep  a  whole  race  forever  landless  and 
homeless.  Tell  me  if  these  Johnson  lawgivers  have  proved 
themselves  fit  architects  of  government ! 

I  have  given  you  fair  examples  of  the  legislation  of  the 
Johnson  governments.  The  same  spirit  of  injustice,  the 
same  determination  to  degrade  and  oppress,  was  every- 
where manifest,  —  in  combinations  against  selling  land  to 
the  freedmen ;  in  combinations  to  keep  their  wages  down 
to  the  lowest  standard ;  in  dismissals  from  employment  on 
frivolous  pretexts,  just  before  the  harvest,  so  as  to  deprive 
them  of  all  share  in  the  crop ;  in  the  unblushing  partiality 
of  juries  and  the  lower  courts ;  in  the  burning  of  their 
schoolhouses  and  churches;  in  the  mobbing  and  expul- 
sion of  their  teachers  ;  in  daily  assaults  and  murders  which 
went  unpunished  and  unprosecuted,  —  all  culminating  in 
such  massacres  as  those  of  Norfolk,  Memphis,  New 
Orleans,  and  Mobile. 

With  such  barbarous  legislation  and  such  prevailing 
injustice,  a  neglect  of  Congress  to  interpose  would  have 
been  abdication  of  a  high  trust.  Nevertheless,  it  pro- 
ceeded with  great  caution,  —  too  great,  history  will  prob- 
ably say.  It  passed,  over  the  President's  veto,  the  Civil 
Rights  Act  of  April  9,  1866,  which  affirmed  the  equal  civil 
rights  of  the  freedmen,  and  prescribed  punishments  upon 
all  persons  who  should  attempt  under  color  of  law  to 
deprive  them  of  rights,  or  inflict  on  them  different  punish- 
ments, pains,  or  penalties  on  account  of  their  color,  race, 
or  former  condition.  This  Act  did  something  to  protect 
the  freedmen  in  some  localities;  but  as  a  general  remedy 
it  proved  ineffective.  Two  months  later,  Congress  sub- 
mitted to  the  States  —  partly  with  a  view  of  securing 
equal  rights,  and  partly  with  a  view  of  testing  the  loyalty 
of  the  Johnson  governments  —  the  Constitutional  amend- 


1 62  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

ment  now  known  as  the  fourteenth.  It  was  liberal  and 
considerate  in  terms.  It  declared  the  citizenship  of  all 
persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the  United  States,  and  for- 
bade any  State  to  abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities  of 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States.  Surely,  none  can  object 
to  that  constitutional  truism.  It  reduced  Congressional 
representation  in  the  same  proportion  as  any  State  reduced 
its  body  of  electors  by  disfranchisement.  That  applied  to 
all  the  States,  and  was  certainly  fair.  It  affirmed  the  val- 
idity of  the  national  debt:  what  honest  citizen  can  object 
to  that?  It  forbade  the  payment  by  the  United  States  or 
by  any  State  of  the  rebel  debt :  is  any  one  of  you  specially 
anxious  to  pay  a  share  of  that  debt?  —  if  you  are,  you  can 
buy  a  rebel  bond.  It  incapacitated  for  public  trust  certain 
officers  who,  having  taken  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  afterwards  violated  that  oath  and 
engaged  in  rebellion:  is  there  anything  harsh  in  that?  It 
did  not  deprive  them  of  life,  liberty,  property,  civil  rights, 
suffrage  even,  but  only  of  office:  was  ever  treason  so 
kindly  treated?  It  excluded  from  office  a  far  less  number 
than  were  excluded  by  Mr.  Johnson's  amnesty  Proclama- 
tion, issued  contemporaneously  with  his  appointment  of 
provisional  governors;  and  furthermore,  it  even  em- 
powered Congress  to  remove  this  disability  by  a  two-thirds 
vote,  thus  making  it  temporary  only,  to  remain  no  longer 
than  the  exigency.  How  was  this  overture  of  peace  and 
reconciliation  met?  In  the  winter  of  1866-67  it  was  re- 
jected contemptuously,  rejected  unanimously,  generally 
not  a  single  member  of  either  house  in  the  Johnson 
legislatures  voting  for  it. 

Congress  at  last,  pressed  by  the  loyal  people,  entered 
on  a  thorough  policy  in  March,  1867.  By  one  Act  it 
divided  the  rebel  States  into  military  districts,  and  re- 
quired the  President  to  assign  to  each  an  officer  of  supe- 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  163 

rior  rank,  and  clothed  him  with  extraordinary  powers  for 
the  protection  of  persons  and  property.  By  another 
Act,  it  prescribed  the  registration  as  voters  in  each  State 
of  the  people,  irrespective  of  color  or  race,  who  were 
not  excluded  from  office  by  the  fourteenth  Constitutional 
amendment.  Such  electors,  if  voting  for  a  constitutional 
convention,  were  to  choose  delegates ;  and  the  convention 
was  to  frame  a  constitution  which  upon  its  ratification  was 
to  be  submitted  to  Congress,  and  if  found  to  be  expres- 
sive of  the  popular  will  in  such  State  and  proper  in  its 
provisions,  the  State  was  to  be  admitted  under  it  to  repre- 
sentation in  Congress.  Contrast  in  one  item  alone  the 
care  of  Congress  with  the  slip-shod  haste  of  Mr.  Johnson. 
The  constitutions  framed  under  the  President  were  not 
submitted  for  ratification  to  a  popular  vote,  but  became 
such  upon  the  adjournment  of  the  conventions  which 
framed  them.  Those  framed  under  Congress  were  all 
submitted  to  a  popular  vote.  Under  these  Acts  of  Con- 
gress, constitutions  were  formed  by  the  people  of  the 
late  rebel  States.  Unlike  those  of  the  Johnson  govern- 
ments, they  make  no  discrimination  on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  former  condition  of  servitude,  but  prohibit  such 
discrimination  and  secure  equal  rights  for  all.  They  make 
the  most  liberal  provision  for  popular  education,  as  broad 
as  any  in  the  statutes  of  Massachusetts  or  New  York. 
Never  in  the  history  of  that  section  of  country  have  the 
laws  been  so  expressive  of  humanity  and  civilization. 

Now,  you  are  called  upon,  fellow-citizens,  to  decide 
between  the  Johnson  governments,  with  their  cruel,  bar- 
barous, and  unequal  legislation,  and  the  governments  or- 
ganized under  the  auspices  of  Congress,  with  their  liberal, 
just,  and  humane  provisions.  Not  only  this:  you  are 
asked  not  merely  to  choose  between  them,  but  to  say 
whether  you  will  destroy  the  good  governments  and  re- 


164  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

store  the  bad  governments  in  their  place.  More  than 
this  even,  you  are  summoned  by  Mr.  Blair,  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency,  to  allow  him  and  his 
associates,  by  military  usurpation  and  violence,  to  over- 
turn just  governments  and  to  set  up  unjust  governments 
in  their  place.  Was  there  ever  a  more  one-sided  issue? 
The  Republicans  are  the  true  conservatives;  and  they 
say,  Let  the  just  governments  now  established  abide. 

But  I  am  told  that  this  whole  business  of  reconstruction, 
as  treated  by  the  Republicans,  is  made  to  concern  only 
the  negroes ;  and  that  they  are  not  our  brothers,  nor  are 
we  their  keepers.  This  is  not  so.  We  plead  for  good 
government,  and  that  concerns  all  men  for  all  time.  It  is 
not  merely  a  question  of  sentiment  or  of  abstract  justice ; 
it  is  a  question  which  comes  home  to  the  pockets  of  every 
one  of  you.  There  is  not  a  man  here  with  a  coat  on  his 
back,  or  who  expects  to  sleep  between  two  sheets  to- 
night; there  is  not  a  mother  here  who  goes  shopping  on 
Saturdays  for  her  children ;  there  is  not  a  father  of  a 
family  who  has  to  fit  out  his  daughter  for  marriage,  — 
there  is  not  one  of  these  who  is  not  pecuniarily  interested 
in  its  just  solution.  There  is  not  a  bale  of  cotton,  there 
is  hardly  a  case  of  tobacco,  there  is  not  a  barrel  of  rice  or 
of  turpentine,  which  is  not  the  product  of  the  labor  of  the 
freedmen.  Go  to  a  plantation  in  Georgia  in  early  spring, 
and  you  will  see  these  freedmen  preparing  the  cotton  land 
for  the  season ;  later  you  will  see  them  —  men,  women, 
and  children — planting  it;  then  hoeing  it  during  the 
summer;  then  picking  it  in  autumn ;  then  ginning,  baling, 
and  carting  it  to  a  railroad  depot  or  to  a  landing-place  on 
a  river,  whence  it  is  to  be  transported  to  New  York, 
Boston,  or  Liverpool :  all  the  labor  is  that  of  the  freed- 
men. There  is  the  white  man's  capital  invested  in  the 
product,  and  there  is  sometimes,  not  always,  his  superin- 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  165 

tendance.  That  cotton,  after  its  manufacture,  is  to  be  worn 
by  you  and  your  family;  and  according  as  good  or  bad 
laws  prevail  at  the  South,  you  are  to  pay  more  or  less 
for  it.  What  I  have  said  of  cotton,  is  true  also  of  rice 
and  turpentine ;  and  it  is,  though  less  so,  true  of  tobacco, 
which  is,  however,  largely  planted  in  the  free  States. 
Through  these  great  staples,  then,  the  freedmen  are 
present  in  your  daily  comforts;  they  supply  your  manu- 
factures and  your  commerce;  they  regulate  your  balances 
with  foreign  nations ;  they  determine  the  value  of  your 
currency;  they  make  and  they  vary  the  figures  on  your 
ledgers;  seen  or  unseen  by  you,  they  are  present  in 
your  homes,  your  banks,  your  warehouses,  your  workshops^ 
and  in  all  the  avenues  of  your  life.  Take  the  single  pro- 
duct of  cotton.  The  crop  of  1867  was  two  millions  and 
six  hundred  thousand  bales,  worth  two  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  dollars.  One-third  of  it  was  consumed  at  home, 
two-thirds  of  it  were  exported.  Now,  if  the  Forrests  and 
Wade  Hamptons  are  to  have  their  way  with  this  people ;  if 
they  are  to  be  the  victims  of  violence,  Ku-Klux  clans,  and 
massacres,  —  this  great  production  is  to  be  exterminated. 
These  freedmen  have  once  tasted  of  freedom  and  suf- 
frage ;  and  before  they  will  go  back  to  slavery  in  name  or 
in  fact,  they  will  resist,  as  they  ought  to  resist,  to  the  bitter 
end.  It  will  be  San  Domingo  again,  as  when  Napoleon 
undertook  to  reduce  the  emancipated  slaves  to  bond- 
age. You  will  have  the  horrors  and  ravages  of  civil  and 
servile  war  combined.  Where  then  will  be  the  product  to 
feed  your  mills,  to  supply  your  spindles,  to  provide  work 
for  your  factory  operatives,  men  and  women,  native  and 
foreign-born?  Recall  the  wail  of  distress  which  came  from 
Lancashire  in  1861,  and  ask  yourselves  if  you  wish  to  hear 
it  from  Lowell  and  Lawrence  and  Fall  River ! 

But  this  is  not  all.     You  are  to  have,  by  this  policy  of 


166      TWO  SYSTEMS  OF  RECONSTRUCTION. 

injustice,  one  half  of  all  your  exports  obliterated.  The 
total  exports  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1867,  were 
$440,838,834.  The  chief  item  was  cotton,  which  amount- 
ed to  $202,911,410.  Another  item  was  tobacco,  amount- 
ing to  $22,671,126.  Another  was  turpentine,  amounting 
to  $1,066,986.  Let  these  branches  of  industry,  conduct- 
ed mainly  by  freedmen,  be  destroyed,  and  how  are  you  to 
meet  the  balance  of  trade  against  you?  Your  currency 
will  depreciate ;  gold  will  rise  to  two  hundred ;  your 
bonds  will  fall  in  the  market;  your  capacity  to  borrow 
will  be  diminished,  and  your  credit  everywhere  suffer. 
On  the  other  hand,  give  peace,  security,  and  justice  to  all 
t races  and  classes ;  let  your  flag  be  the  symbol  of  protec- 
tion to  all  men,  the  meanest  as  well  as  the  highest,  — and 
your  cotton  crop  will  be.  doubled;  your  tobacco,  turpen- 
tine, and  rice  interests  will  thrive ;  your  mills  will  be  alive 
with  the  hum  of  industry ;  your  currency  will  appreciate 
to  par ;  your  credit,  as  well  as  your  honor,  will  be  unques- 
tioned in  the  markets  of  the  world;  and  your  national 
debt  can  be  funded  at  lower  rates  of  interest.  Behold  the 
choice  !  On  the  one  side,  just  government,  with  commer- 
cial prosperity  in  its  train ;  on  the  other,  oppression  and 
violence,  with  commercial  disaster  and  ruin.  Which  will 
you  have?  The  Sibyl  offers  you  the  precious  boon  at  the 
mere  price  of  a  ballot.  Refuse  her,  and  when  she  comes 
again,  she  will  demand  more  than  you  can  pay. 

Sometimes,  in  individual  life,  seeing  the  prosperity  of 
the  wicked,  we  almost  distrust  Providence.  But  this  is 
never  so  with  nations,  whose  life  is  measured  by  centuries. 
Spain  lived  on  the  plunder  of  Mexico  and  the  Indies;  and 
where  has  she  been  for  two  hundred  years?  She  now 
shows  the  first  sign  of  life  in  the  expulsion  of  a  dissolute 
and  tyrant  queen,  and  in  movements  for  a  constitutional 
government  and  the  abolition  of  slavery.  We  lived  on  the 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF  RECONSTRUCTION.  167 

sufferings  and  unrequited  toil  of  a  race  for  two  centuries, 
and  even  inventoried  their  bodies  as  national  wealth.  But 
the  furies  of  retribution  were  gathering;  and  at  last  they 
came  in  civil  war,  with  mourning  homes,  wasted  industry, 
and  a  grievous  debt. 

This  injustice  and  violence  at  the  South,  this  oppressive 
legislation  and  persecution,  are  to  be  felt  in  another  seri- 
ous way  at  the  North  as  well  as  at  the  South.  They  will 
force  a  redistribution  of  the  laboring  population  of  the 
South,  precipitating  it  upon  us.  The  great  mass  of  the 
Southern  freedmen,  driven  from  homes  and  accustomed 
avocations,  will  come  here  in  hordes,  to  compete  with  our 
laborers  in  various  employments.  It  will  be  another  he- 
gira.  Under  the  operation  of  natural  laws  and  the  sway 
of  just  government,  the  distribution  of  a  laboring  popula- 
tion is  accomplished  quietly  and  without  any  derangement 
of  industrial  relations.  The  law  of  demand  and  supply 
regulates  the  emigration  of  human  beings,  just  as  it  regu- 
lates the  exportation  of  products.  The  surplus  flows  off 
from  communities  and  countries  where  it  is  too  abundant, 
to  communities  and  countries  in  which  there  is  a  defi- 
ciency. In  this  way,  the  tide  of  emigration  runs  from 
Europe  to  America,  and  from  the  Eastern  States  of  this 
Union  to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  States  and 
Territories  upon  the  Pacific.  But  there  is  another  kind  of 
emigration  forced  by  persecution  and  oppression :  that 
strips  and  impoverishes  the  country  which  it  leaves;  and 
though  it  sometimes  helps,  it  often  crowds  the  country 
whither  it  goes.  How  often  has  religious  persecution 
desolated  districts  of  one  country  and  built  up  cities  in 
another!  Geneva  in  the  time  of  Calvin  doubled  her  popu- 
lation with  Marian  and  Huguenot  exiles.  Among  the 
early  settlers  of  South  Carolina  and  New  York  were  large 
bodies  of  Protestants  who  had  been  driven  from  France. 


168  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

They  were  perpetuated  in  many  honored  names,  and 
among  them  those  of  Laurens  and  Jay.  But  take  a  single 
period.  The  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes  by  Louis 
XIV.,  which  terminated  the  toleration  of  the  Huguenots, 
drove  from  France  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  her  most  in- 
dustrious, most  intelligent,  and  most  skilful  population. 
They  escaped,  spite  of  edicts  and  guards,  to  Switzerland, 
Holland,  England,  and  America.  They  entered  the 
armies  of  the  Continent,  and  aided  in  the  victory  of 
William  of  Orange  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne.  Never 
did  a  country  pay  more  dearly  and  more  speedily  for 
injustice  perpetrated  on  the  weak.  Many  branches  of 
manufacture  were  wel)  nigh  destroyed  in  France;  they 
were  translated  to  the  countries  which  offered  a  refuge  to 
the  thrifty  and  ingenious  exiles.  Manufactories  were 
closed  by  the  hundred,  villages  depopulated,  large  towns 
half  deserted,  and  the  tillage  of  wide  tracts  of  territory 
abandoned.  The  Dutch  cloth-makers  of  Abbeville  emi- 
grated in  a  body,  leaving  none  to  carry  on  the  manufac- 
ture. At  Tours,  of  forty  thousand  silk  artisans  only  four 
thousand  remained,  and  of  eight  hundred  mills  only 
seventy  were  kept  alive;  of  four  hundred  tanneries  in 
Lorraine,  only  fifty-eight  were  found  in  1698;  the  popu- 
lation of  Nantes  was  reduced  from  eighty  thousand  to 
one  half  that  number;  of  twelve  thousand  silk  artisans  in 
Lyons,  nine  thousand  fled.  The  industry  of  these  flour- 
ishing centres  of  craft  and  trade  was  so  completely  pros- 
trated that  they  did  not  recover  for  a  century,  if  they 
have  completely  recovered  at  this  day. 

What  was  done  in  France  under  Louis  XIV.  would  be 
done  in  the  United  States  under  Horatio  Seymour.  The 
freedmen  would  fly  to  the  Northern  States  for  protection, 
and  take  their  place  by  the  side  of  our  laboring  popula- 
tion, native  and  foreign-born.  Remember,  too,  that  they 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  169 

are  not  merely  field-hands,  producers  of  cotton,  tobacco, 
turpentine,  and  rice.  On  every  large  plantation  of  the 
South  there  is  a  carpenter,  often  a  blacksmith ;  and  they 
are  colored  men.  Wherever,  too,  there  is  a  steam-engine 
to  crush  sugar-cane  or  gin  cotton,  there  you  will  find  a 
black  engineer.  And  the  same  is  true  of  other  mechani- 
cal operations.  These  people  are  also  pilots  and  sailors 
on  the  sea  as  well  as  skilful  workmen  on  the  land.  Take 
a  single  State  for  illustration.  One  third  of  the  colored 
men  of  North  Carolina  are  mechanics.  There  are  in  that 
State  five  black  mechanics  to  one  white  mechanic,  —  one 
hundred  thousand  black  mechanics  to  twenty  thousand 
white  mechanics.  They  are  blacksmiths,  gunsmiths, 
wheelwrights,  millwrights,  machinists,  carpenters,  cabinet- 
makers, plasterers,  painters,  ship-builders,  stone-masons, 
bricklayers,  pilots,  and  engineers.  You  could  supply  al- 
most any  manufactory  in  Massachusetts  from  such  material. 
But  you  say  these  freedmen  will  not  dare  to  come  to  the 
North:  they  had  a  warning  in  the  riots  of  July,  1863. 
Ah !  you  mistake.  The  world  has  moved  in  five  years. 
Horatio  Seymour  will  not  be  governor  of  New  York  in 
July,  1869,  as  he  was  in  July,  1863.  The  governor,  who- 
ever he  may  be,  will  not  go  down  from  Albany  to  address 
a  mob  as  "  my  friends"  That  has  ceased  to  be  respect- 
able ;  it  has  cost  too  many  speeches  to  explain  those 
unfortunate  words.  The  city  of  New  York  has  paid  two 
or  three  millions  of  dollars,  quite  money  enough,  by  way 
of  damages  for  such  violence.  The  householders  of  the 
city  and  the  insurance  capitalists  will  protest  against  the 
relighting  of  the  torches  of  desperate  men  ;  incendiarism, 
beginning  at  the  Bowery,  might  sweep  to  the  Fifth  Avenue 
and  to  Madison  Square.  The  Anglo-Saxon  love  of  order, 
the  American  love  of  fair  play,  the  human  instinct  for 
justice  and  security  will  prevent  the  repetition  of  these 


I/O  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

horrors,  never  to  be  named  without  a  shudder.  No; 
these  freedmen,  exiles  from  oppression,  driven  from  the 
South  by  rebel  clans  and  Democratic  partisans,  will  be 
welcomed  in  the  free  States  with  the  same  sacred  hospi- 
tality which  awaited  the  Huguenots  wherever  they  fled. 
Let  them  come  here,  if  moved  by  natural  laws ;  but  let 
them  not  be  driven  hither  by  violence,  to  the  impoverish- 
ment of  the  South  and  the  disturbance  of  our  industrial 
system. 

Every  just  sentiment  as  well  as  self-interest  forbids  us 
to  forget  the  colored  population  of  the  South,  or  to  with- 
hold from  them  protection.  There  were  178,975  colored 
soldiers  who  enlisted  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion : 
of  these,  123,156  were  in  service  at  one  time.  The  last 
year  of  the  war  they  formed  about  one  ninth  of  our 
army.  Thirty  thousand  of  them  were  with  Grant  before 
Richmond,  holding  the  nearest  point  to  that  city,  —  Fort 
Harrison.  In  the  presence  of  yourself,  Mr.  President,1 
who  have  commanded  colored  troops,  I  need  only  men- 
tion Port  Hudson,  Fort  Wagner,  the  advance  upon  Rich- 
mond in  1864,  the  mine  at  Petersburg,  and  the  campaign 
against  Mobile.  Their  services  in  war  are  already 
familiar. 

Take  their  services  in  another  department.  One  hun- 
dred thousand  of  them,  at  least,  were  at  one  time  connected 
with  our  army  as  laborers.  In  each  of  his  annual  reports, 
Quartermaster-General  Meigs,  by  no  means  a  sentimental- 
ist, bore  testimony  to  the  great  value  of  their  services. 
In  his  report  for  1864  ne  said:  "The  negro  is  not  an 
embarrassment,  but  a  great  aid  in  the  conduct  of  the 
war."  Summing  up,  in  1865,  the  work  of  his  department 
during  the  war,  he  paid  a  tribute  to  their  effective  aid,  and 
1  Colonel  Henry  S.  Russell. 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 


I/I 


said :  "  Colored  men  continued  to  the  close  of  the  war  to 
be  employed  and  connected  with  the  trains  of  the  quarter- 
master's department,  as  laborers  at  depots,  as  pioneers 
with  the  marching  columns.  In  all  these  positions  they 
have  done  good  service,  and  materially  contributed  to  that 
final  victory  which  confirmed  their  freedom  and  saved  our 
place  among  the  nations."  Could  there  be  more  unim- 
peachable testimony? 

The  freedmen  were  the  faithful  and  intelligent  guides 
of  our  army  during  the  war.  Not  to  take  time  in  enumer- 
ating special  instances  of  this  service  rendered  by  them, 
I  give  you  the  testimony  of  one  who  has  not  been  a  swift 
witness  for  the  negro  in  these  latter  days.  Said  Mr. 
Seward,  in  a  despatch  to  Mr.  Adams,  of  May  28,  1862: 
"  Everywhere  the  American  general  receives  his  most 
useful  and  reliable  information  from  the  negro,  who  hails 
his  coming  as  a  harbinger  of  freedom."  Such  is  the  record 
of  our  diplomacy. 

The  negroes  were  everywhere  the  friends  of  our  soldiers 
escaping  from  Southern  prisons.  No  soldier  flying  from 
Andersonville,  Salisbury,  or  Libby  Prison  ever  found  his 
way  to  our  lines  who  was  not  chiefly  indebted  to  them  for 
the  means  of  escape.  At  much  risk  to  themselves,  they 
provided  for  him  food,  clothing,  boats,  hiding-places,  and 
guided  him  on  his  way.  It  was  never  necessary  to  ap- 
proach them  with  caution,  or  to  inquire  in  advance  who 
of  them  might  be  trusted.  The  soldier  told  them  his 
story,  and  he  was  safe ;  indeed,  they  seemed  to  know  him 
and  his  needs  by  instinct  as  he  came  in  sight.  The  black 
face  was  as  much  the  sign  and  symbol  of  loyalty  as  the 
American  flag  itself.  History  records  no  more  touching 
instances  of  fidelity  to  our  escaping  soldiers.  Mr.  Julius 
Henri  Browne,  who  escaped  from  Salisbury,  has  published 
his  account  of  the  obligation  of  himself  and  his  compan- 


172  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

ions  to  the  negroes.  In  February,  1864,  some  thirty  or 
forty  officers  escaped  from  Libby  Prison,  and  reached 
our  lines  in  safety.  They  authorized  a  published  state- 
ment of  the  aid  received  by  them  from  the  negroes, 
who  gave  them  their  only  food,  guided  them  on  their 
course,  and  directed  them  how  to  avoid  the  rebel  pickets. 
Lieutenant  Estabrook,  of  Dorchester,  in  a  most  interesting 
narrative  called  "  Adrift  in  Dixie,"  has  related  his  escape 
from  the  rebel  guard  near  the  southern  line  of  Virginia, 
his  descent  of  the  Dan  River,  and  his  safe  arrival  at 
our  lines  before  Petersburg.  All  the  way  he  received 
constant  and  cordial  aid  from  the  negroes.  But  why 
repeat  instances?  No  Union  soldier  ever  escaped  from  a 
rebel  prison  who  did  not  pay  a  tribute  to  their  fidelity. 

There  was  something  sublime  in  the  devotion  of  the 
colored  population  of  the  South  to  the  Union  during  the 
war.  Even  while  the  nation  protested  that  it  was  a  war 
for  the  Union  only,  and  was  not  to  affect  their  condition, 
these  lowly  people,  led  by  a  profound  instinct,  at  dead  of 
night,  while  the  master  slept,. left  their  homes  of  bondage; 
bearing  their  children  and  scanty  packs  of  food  and  cloth- 
ing; creeping  along  the  margins  of  creeks  and  rivers, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  overhanging  branches,  in  rude 
dug-outs  which  their  own  hands  had  made;  threading 
forests,  pathless  except  to  those  for  whom  the  hope  of 
freedom  is  an  unfailing  compass;  chased  by  bloodhounds 
and  relentless  patrols;  approaching  rebel  pickets  at  im- 
minent peril  of  life  or  capture,  —  till  at  last,  weary,  foot- 
sore, and  famished,  they  cast  themselves  at  the  feet  of  our 
advanced  sentries.  They  knew,  that,  whatever  the  laws 
or  proclamations  or  diplomatic  assurances  might  be,  God 
had  made  them  and  us  allies  in  the  contest.  They  were 
wiser  in  their  generation  than  Cabinet  or  Congress.  Again, 
in  human  history,  the  truth  was  hid  from  the  wise  and 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  173 

prudent,  and  revealed  unto  babes.  If  we  turn  our  backs 
upon  such  a  people,  we  shall  receive,  as  we  ought  to 
receive,  the  execrations  of  mankind. 

It  is  claimed  that  this  is  a  white  man's  government,  and 
that  therefore  the  governments  established  under  the  au- 
spices of  Congress  and  securing  suffrage  to  all,  irrespec- 
tive of  color,  ought  not  to  stand.  Whence  came  this 
dogma?  In  vain  will  you  seek  for  it  in  the  writings  of 
Jefferson,  the  great  apostle  of  democracy.  He  taught  the 
equal  rights  of  all,  and  man's  capacity  for  self-govern- 
ment. Not  one  of  the  fathers  asserted  it.  The  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  affirmed  that  all  men  —  not  all  white 
men,  but  all  men  —  are  created  equal.  The  Constitution 
in  its  preamble  declares,  "  we  the  people,"  not  "  we  the 
white  people;  "  it  says,  "we  the  people  ordain  and  estab- 
lish this  Constitution,"  not  this  white  man  s  Constitution ; 
we  do  it  in  order  to  "  provide  for  the  common  defence  " 
and  "  promote  the  general  welfare,"  not  in  order  to  provide 
for  the  defence  and  promote  the  welfare  of  any  one  set  or 
race  of  men.  This  doctrine  of  a  white  man's  government 
is  a  modern  dispensation.  The  Dred  Scott  decision  is  its 
creed ;  Chief-Justice  Taney  is  its  high-priest.  You  will 
find  its  altars  in  the  corner  groceries  of  Kentucky,  where 
the  Nasbys,  the  Bascoms,  and  the  Pograms  congregate, 
and  where,  amid  the  fumes  of  Bourbon  whiskey,  they 
assume  to  be  the  vindicators  of  the  white  race.  The  men 
that  preach  it  were  but  too  glad  a  few  years  ago  to  find 
negro  substitutes  to  take  their  place  in  a  draft. 

No,  fellow-citizens,  this  is  not  a  white  man's  government, 
or  a  black  man's  government,  or  a  native-born  citizen's 
or  a  foreign-born  citizen's  government.  It  is  a  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people.  Our 
fathers,  as  they  framed  it,  looking  down  through  future 


174 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 


time,  saw  men  of  all  nationalities,  exiles  from  all  quarters 
of  the  globe,  gathering  from  age  to  age  under  its  protect- 
ing segis;  and  they  in  their  comprehensive  humanity 
ordained  that  no  one  of  all  these  —  no,  not  the  meanest, 
the  poorest,  or  the  blackest — should  ever  be  excluded 
from  its  sublime  benefaction. 

Think  not,  my  friends,  that  you  lessen  the  value  of  any 
franchise  by  admitting  others  to  share  it.  It  is  only  the 
lowest  order  of  possessions  which  must  be  exclusively 
appropriated  by  one.  The  highest  and  the  best  are  for 
al^  —  the  air  we  breathe;  the  rain  that  falleth  on  the  just 
and  the  unjust;  the  sunlight  which  bathes  in  glory  the 
evening  sky ;  love  which  setteth  the  solitary  in  families ; 
the  hope  of  immortality  which  shines  for  all.  Do  you 
wish  to  be  alone  immortal,  and  to  live  on  forever  in 
sublime  isolation?  Is  your  wife  less  precious  to  you 
because  another  has  one  whom  he  too  loves,  honors,  and 
cherishes?  Is  your  child  less  dear  to  you  because  some 
two  years  ago  the  angel  of  Life,  passing  by,  dropped  a 
like  benediction  at  my  hearthstone?  Ay,  and  when  on 
Tuesday  next  you  cast  your  freeman's  ballot  in  this  hall, 
are  you  to  prize  it  the  less,  and  feel  your  citizenship  dis- 
honored, because  a  thousand  miles  away  some  Louisiana 
freedman  is  to  be  better  protected  and  have  a  better  chance 
in  life  by  having  a  right  on  that  day  to  cast  his  first  ballot 
for  a  President?  Shame  on  you  if  you  do  ! 

The  governments  organized  under  the  auspices  of  Con- 
gress are  stigmatized  as  "  carpet-bag"  governments.  This 
is  a  new  term,  and  what  does  it  mean?  The  facts  which 
gave  rise  to  it  are  these.  Congress  authorized  the  actual 
bona  fide  citizens  of  the  rebel  States,  with  certain  excep- 
tions for  disloyalty,  to  form  constitutions,  — just  as  the  ac- 
tual bona  fide  citizens  of  Massachusetts  have  formed  its 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 


175 


constitution.  Among  those  actual  bona  fide  citizens  was  a 
small  proportion  of  persons  who  after  the  war  emigrated 
to  those  States  from  the  North,  cast  in  their  fortunes  with 
them,  carried  capital  to  them,  engaged  there  in  merchan- 
dise and  the  culture  of  cotton  and  other  products,  and 
thus  became  as  much  citizens  of  those  States  as  if  born 
upon  the  soil,  and  just  as  much  citizens  thereof  as  you 
and  I  are  citizens  of  Massachusetts.  Therefore,  they  were 
entitled  to  the  rights  of  citizenship  in  those  States.  The 
Constitution  says,  "  The  citizens  of  each  State  shall  be 
entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  in  the 
several  States."  These  citizens,  derisively  called  "  carpet- 
baggers," were  in  large  proportion  veteran  soldiers  of  our 
army ;  and  who  had  a  better  right  to  settle  in  that  territory 
than  they  who  had  saved  it  to  the  Union?  Now,  it  so 
happened,  and  quite  naturally  too,  that  the  enfranchised 
colored  people  had  more  confidence  in  these  emigrants 
from  the  North  than  in  the  old  planters  who  had  held 
them  and  their  fathers  in  bondage,  and  preferred  the  new 
settlers  in  some  cases  as  legislators  and  magistrates.  A 
number  of  them  were  elected  in  this  way  to  office,  —  not 
a  too  large  proportion.  What  was  there  new  or  strange 
in  all  this?  Have  not  qualified  electors  a  right  to  vote  for 
whom  they  please,  and  have  not  successful  candidates  for 
office,  duly  qualified,  a  right  to  accept?  But  look  a  little 
further.  What  are  we  but  a  nation  of  emigrants,  new  set- 
tlers, squatters,  —  "  carpet-baggers,"  if  you  please?  What 
is  our  government  of  eighty  years'  existence  by  the  side  of 
the  ancient  and  august  dynasties  of  Europe?  As  the  tide 
of  population  flows  westward,  the  old  thirteen  are  lost  in 
the  growing  family  of  commonwealths.  In  the  great  city 
of  Chicago,  with  its  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inhab- 
itants, few  of  the  residents  over  twenty  years  of  age  were 
born  within  its  limits.  People  do  not  ask  there,  "  Who 


1 76  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

was  your  father?"  but,  "  Where  were  you  raised?"  The 
citizens  of  Massachusetts  are  welcomed  wheresoever  they 
go  in  the  new  States  and  Territories  of  the  Northwest.  If 

o 

any  one  of  you  gentlemen  shall,  a  fortnight  hence,  carpet- 
bag in  hand,  arrive  in  some  town  of  Nevada  or  Colorado 
with  the  intention  to  make  your  domicile  there,  you  will  be 
welcomed  to  the  firesides  of  those  who  have  gone  before 
you ;  everybody  will  offer  to  sell  you  real  estate ;  and  in 
a  week  you  will  be  chosen  a  member  of  the  school  com- 
mittee. Such  is  the  free  course  of  American  life. 

Now,  the  demand  of  the  Southern  rebels  is  that  the 
old  slave-masters  shall  have  the  exclusive  right  to  occupy 
and  govern  that  vast  section  of  country  which  stretches 
from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  from  the  Atlan- 
tic to  the  Pacific ;  and  that  no  man  from  the  North,  hold- 
ing other  opinions  than  theirs,  shall  ever  become  a  citizen 
thereof,  shall  ever  go  there  to  live,  shall  ever  do  business 
there,  or  shall  ever  vote  or  hold  office  there ;  and  if  they 
do  go  there,  they  are  to  be  stigmatized  as  "  carpet-bag- 
gers "  and  "  scallawags,"  and  be  driven  thence  with  threats 
of  assassination.  What  say  you  to  this  impudent  preten- 
sion? We  have  one  country,  have  we  not? — divided, 
indeed,  into  several  States,  but  still  one  country,  with  one 
constitution,  one  citizenship,  one  flag,  one  destiny.  We 
have  a  right  to  go  where  we  please  in  that  country;  to 
carry  on  any  lawful  business  that  suits  us;  to  raise  Indian 
corn  and  potatoes  in  Massachusetts,  or  cotton  in  Carolina; 
to  think  as  we  please ;  to  cast  what  ballot  we  choose ;  and 
to  hold  any  office  to  which  our  fellow-citizens  may  elect 
us.  If  we  have  not  these  first  of  all  rights;  if  we  have  not 
in  four  years  of  blood  established  them  beyond  all  dis- 
pute; if  veteran  soldiers,  scarred  and  maimed  for  life  in 
saving  that  territory  to  the  Union,  have  not  won  these 
rights  for  themselves,  —  the  sooner  we  have  another  war 
to  vindicate  them  the  better. 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 


177 


The  Republican  party  is  in  favor  of  paying  the  national 
debt  according  to  its  spirit  as  well  as  its  letter.  The  Sey- 
mour party  proposes  to  pay  it  by  issuing  greenbacks  and 
flooding  the  country  with  an  irredeemable,  inconvertible 
paper  currency  which  will  inflate  the  price  of  the  necessa- 
ries of  life,  —  of  everything  which  a  poor  man  or  one  of 
moderate  means  eats,  drinks,  or  wears.  But  who  are  the 
national  creditors?  If  they  were  Shylocks,  they  should 
nevertheless  be  paid  what  is  nominated  in  the  bond.  But 
as  a  rule  they  are  our  friends,  not  our  enemies ;  those  who 
have  confidence  in  our  government,  and  not  those  who 
have  desired  its  ruin.  The  Rothschilds  lent  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  ten 
years,  but  we  asked  no  loans  of  them.  Our  government 
appealed  to  the  patriotism  of  the  people,  who  responded 
with  money  as  they  had  already  responded  with  men ;  all 
classes  according  to  their  means  subscribed.  In  time  the 
national  bonds  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  less  wealthy. 
The  rich  are  more  apt  to  invest  in  warehouses,  merchan- 
dise, railroad  stocks,  factories,  ships,  and  real  estate.  The 
national  bond  is  an  easy  investment  for  a  man  who  has 
little  opportunity  or  capacity  for  speculation.  Its  value 
can  always  be  definitely  determined  ;  it  requires  no  exam- 
ination of  title ;  it  always  finds  a  ready  sale.  The  me- 
chanics of  the  country  have  largely  invested  in  the  national 
bonds.  So  also  have  the  savings-banks.  Of  eighty  mill- 
ions of  savings-bank  capital  in  this  Commonwealth,  twenty- 
five  millions  are  invested  in  the  national  bonds.  The 
laboring  man  and  the  laboring  woman,  the  journeyman 
shoemaker  and  the  carpenter,  the  cook  and  the  seamstress, 
every  depositor  in  these  banks,  is  interested  directly  in 
the  preservation  of  the  national  faith. 

But    I  fear  not  the   issue  of  this    financial    discussion. 
Every  day's  debate  has  driven  the  repudiators  from  point 


178  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

to  point  till  now  they  cry  "  quarter,"  explaining  that  they 
do  not  favor  the  issuing  of  more  greenbacks,  though  four 
hundred  millions  of  greenbacks  cannot  pay  off  fifteen  hun- 
dred millions  of  five-twenties ;  and  they  protest  that  they 
do  not  propose  the  payment  of  the  principal  of  the  bonds 
till  the  greenback  dollar  and  the  gold  dollar  are  of  like 
value.  Why  then  vex  the  country  with  a  premature  agi- 
tation, which  has  brought  only  discredit?  Sorry  am  I  that 
the  Republican  party  is  not  quite  the  unit  it  should  be 
upon  this  question.  But  the  masses  are  right,  the  organi- 
zation is  right,  the  declaration  of  principles  is  right,  the 
grand  current  is  right  The  Chicago  Convention  de- 
nounced all  forms  of  repudiation  as  a  crime,  and  demanded 
the  payment  of  the  public  debt  in  the  uttermost  good 
faith,  as  well  according  to  its  spirit  as  its  letter.  Vain  will 
be  every  ingenious  or  eccentric  effort  to  resist  or  avoid  the 
force  of  these  plain,  honest  words.  There  they  stand,  and 
there  they  will  continue  to  stand,  as  the  orthodox  Repub- 
lican faith.  Uncle  Sam  has  hitherto  been  an  honest  trades- 
man. He  will  never  consider  his  creditors  paid  when  he 
has  divided  among  them  fifty  cents  on  a  dollar.  He  ran 
up  heavy  store-bills  in  bringing  his  truant  rebellious  sons 
to  terms.  He  was  obliged  to  take  his  loyal  sons  from 
profitable  callings,  and  use  them  in  maintaining  family 
discipline.  It  was  necessary  to  pay  and  pension  them  for 
their  service.  Hard  pressed  on  all  sides,  he  was  forced  to 
suspend  the  payment  of  money  for  his  current  liabilities, 
and  to  issue  promises  to  pay.  He  means  to  meet  those 
promises  with  money,  and  not  with  other  promises  of  no 
more  value  than  the  first.  If  he  is  ever  in  trouble  again, 
he  means  to  carry  to  the  market  an  unimpeached  and  un- 
impeachable credit.  God  bless  the  old  fellow!  Before 
he  would  yield  to  the  suggestion  of  any  unworthy  child  to 
pay  anything  else  than  the  real  dollar  he  has  promised,  the 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  179 

only  dollar  which  the  nations  recognize  as  money,  — 
before  he  would  have  that  shameful  word  "  Repudiation  " 
branded  on  his  forehead,  he  would  go  to  the  scaffold  as 
bravely  as  did  John  Brown. 

It  is  charged  that  the  Republicans  are  endeavoring  to 
perpetuate  in  peace  the  passions  of  war.  Far  from  it. 
Reconciliation,  forgiveness,  pardon,  are  the  sacred  terms 
of  our  religion  as  well  as  the  dictates  of  a  wise  public 
policy.  We  have  not  attempted  to  "  draw  up  an  indict- 
ment against  a  whole  people,"  or  to  "  apply  the  ordinary 
ideas  of  criminal  justice  to  this  great  public  contest."  We 
challenge  a  comparison  with  other  civil  wars;  and  we 
claim  that  the  suppression  of  no  rebellion  has  cost  the 
vanquished  insurgents  so  little  in  disabilities,  penalties,  and 
confiscations.  You  can  almost  count  on  your  fingers  the 
estates  of  which  the  forfeiture  has  been  claimed.  They 
are  less  than  those  which  our  fathers  inflicted  on  the  Brit- 
ish loyalists,  who,  unlike  our  rebels,  remained  faithful  to 
the  governments  under  which  they  were  born.  We  hold 
no  traitor  in  prison ;  we  have  hung  none.  Only  one  man 
was  ever  hung  for  treason  in  this  country;  and  while  John 
Brown's  soul  goes  marching  on,  we  do  not  wish  to  give 
Jefferson  Davis  the  benefit  of  a  comparison  with  him 
which  even  a  common  fate  might  suggest.  We  have 
nominated  for  President  the  most  magnanimous  of  gen- 
erals, who  has  been  sometimes  censured  for  his  too  liberal 
paroles.  We  have  restored  even  to  political  power  the 
great  mass  of  the  rebels,  only  excluding  for  present  secu- 
rity a  class  of  leading  men  who  had  been  doubly  false,  — 
false  not  merely  to  the  common  allegiance  due  from  all  citi- 
zens, but  to  the  solemn  oath  they  had  taken  in  assuming 
public  trusts.  Even  these  we  are  ready  to  receive  back  into 
fellowship  as  soon  as  they  shall  bring  forth  fruits  meet  for 


180  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

repentance,  and  the  public  safety  will  admit.  We  ask  no- 
thing for  vengeance,  punishment,  retaliation ;  but  peace, 
security,  and  protection  for  the  loyal  men  of  the  South, 
white  and  black,  and  the  fulfilment  of  our  national  pledges, 
we  will  have,  cost  what  it  may. 

To  my  foreign-born  fellow-citizens  —  some  of  whom  I 
see  here  this  evening  —  I  have  a  word  to  say.  The  mass 
of  you  have  been  heretofore  aggregated  in  the  Democratic 
party ;  but  will  you  tell  me  why  it  is  that  the  great  body 
of  you  have  emigrated  to  the  free  States,  where  Repub- 
licans have  controlled,  and  why  it  is  that  you  have  avoided 
the  slave  States,  where  Democrats  have  controlled?  You 
come  to  New  England  and  to  the  Middle  States,  and  you 
push  on  to  the  Northwest;  but  you  have  shunned  the 
Southern  or  slave  country  as  a  pestilential  region.  By 
the  census  of  1860,  there  were  4,136,175  persons  of  for- 
eign birth  in  the  United  States:  of  these,  3,582,999  were 
resident  in  the  free  States,  and  the  balance  in  the  slave 
States,  —  eighty-nine  per  cent  to  eleven;  eight  to  one. 
The  State  of  New  York  alone  had  a  foreign-born  popula- 
tion almost  twice  as  large  as  that  of  all  the  slave  States 
together.  Of  every  nine  men  emigrating  from  a  parish  in 
Ireland  to  this  country,  eight  went  to  the  free  States,  and 
only  one  to  the  slave  States,  —  and  he  probably  lost  his 
way.  Why  is  this?  The  answer  is  easy.  Most  of  you 
are  laboring  men,  and  you  want  to  live  in  a  community 
where  labor  is  honored  and  protected.  It  is  honored  and 
protected  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  Republican  policy 
has  prevailed ;  it  has  not  been  honored  and  protected  in 
Mississippi,  where  the  Democratic  policy  has  prevailed. 
And,  again,  Republican  States  like  Massachusetts  provide 
free  public  schools  for  all,  in  which  knowledge  is  taught, 
without  money  and  without  price,  and  in  which  your  chil- 


TWO   SYSTEMS    OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  igl 

dren  may  rise  to  become  Emmets  and  Sheridans.  The 
Republicans  have  signalized  the  first  year  of  their  adminis- 
tration in  the  South  by  constitutional  and  legislative  pro- 
visions for  universal  education,  where  none  had  existed 
during  all  the  years  of  Democratic  rule.  Now,  will  you  be 
false  to  your  true  friends,  and  clasp  hands  with  your  real 
enemies?  It  is  the  marvel  of  our  history  that  you  have 
been  heretofore  so  much  consolidated  in  the  Democratic 
party,  whose  policy  is  so  adverse  to  your  best  interests. 
But  a  new  spirit  is  making  its  way  among  you.  One  of 
the  most  eloquent  voices  that  ever  pleaded  for  American 
freedom,  for  universal  freedom,  was  that  of  Daniel  O'Con- 
nell,  the  great  Irish  agitator;  and  young  Irishmen  now, 
sharing  his  tongue  of  flame,  are  summoning  you  to 
our  ranks.  Would  you  secure  justice  and  freedom  for 
Ireland,  your  first  step  should  be  to  aid  in  establishing 
freedom  and  justice  in  America.  Remember,  too,  that 
when  the  rights  of  the  meanest  and  the  humblest  any- 
where are  invaded  with  impunity,  the  rights  of  all — yours 
and  mine  —  are  made  less  secure. 

Do  we,  my  friends,  appreciate  the  inestimable  value  of 
the  votes  we  give,  especially  of  those  votes  when  they  are 
to  establish  governments  for  this  generation  and  for  poster- 
ity? They  are  to  send  influences  along  the  lines  of  future 
time,  and  their  end  no  man  can  see.  Take  a  single  illus- 
tration from  our  history.  Upon  the  admission  of  Ohio 
into  the  Union  in  1803,  there  remained  a  vast  territory 
now  comprising  the  States  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan, 
and  Wisconsin,  on  whose  soil  still  rested  the  perpetual 
prohibition  of  slavery  incorporated  in  the  Ordinance  of 
1787,  which  Jefferson  had  drawn.  The  settlers  of  this 
territory,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  relief  from  the 
scarcity  of  labor,  petitioned  Congress  for  a  suspension  of 


1 82  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

this  ordinance,  and  several  times  renewed  their  appeal, 
without  remonstrance  except  once,  and  they  were  support- 
ed in  their  petition  by  Governor  William  Henry  Harrison, 
afterwards  President  of  the  United  States.  Congress, 
approving  a  report  of  John  Randolph  as  chairman  of 
the  committee  to  whom  the  subject  was  referred,  refused 
the  prayer  of  the  petition,  and  again  and  again  refused, 
although  three  subsequent  committees  recommended  a 
compliance.  Congress  remained  firm  during  the  five 
years  in  which  the  measure  was  pressed,  and  thus  saved 
to  liberty  that  vast  territory.  Had  it  weakly  yielded, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  Wisconsin  would  have 
become  as  Mississippi,  Arkansas,  Alabama,  and  Louisi- 
ana ;  and  that  great  Northern  hive,  whence  issued  multi- 
tudes of  soldiers  to  defend  the  government,  would  have 
sent  forth  multitudes  to  destroy  it.  To-day  we  legislate, 
not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  all  coming  generations. 
As  we  sow,  they  shall  reap ;  as  we  vote  rightly  or  wrongly, 
they  are  to  enjoy  or  suffer.  Why,  when  that  child,  sleep- 
ing in  his  cradle  to-night,  tenderly  watched  by  a  mother's 
eyes,  shall  be  absorbed  by  the  activities  of  middle  life,  as 
we  now  are,  he  will  be  the  citizen  of  a  country  teeming 
with  a  hundred  millions  of  people,  —  a  country  washed 
by  two  oceans  and  clasped  with  iron  bands,  receiving 
the  long-sought  wealth  of  the  East,  and,  if  we  do  our  duty, 
a  country  dedicated  to  Liberty,  and  fulfilling  at  last  the 
noblest  aspirations  of  the  human  race.  What  a  responsi- 
bility, what  a  trust,  what  a  duty  is  ours ! 

But  I  must  not  detain  you  longer.  The  Ship  of  State 
—  pardon  the  well-worn  figure — is  now  safe.  Awhile 
ago  she  seemed  in  some  danger  from  a  black  craft,  which 
during  the  war  sailed  betimes  with  French  or  English 
colors,  and  has  of  late  had  the  names  of  Seymour  and 


TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION.  183 

Blair  flying  at  her  mast-head,  and  even  these  she  was 
about  to  change  the  other  day  for  some  of  better  repute ; 
but  whatever  the  colors,  it  is  the  same  old  rebel  craft 
still,  — 

"  Built  in  the  eclipse,  and  rigged  with  curses  dark." 

As  she  came  up  alongside,  our  Ship,  with  well-aimed  shot 
from  three  favorite  guns,  —  the  Pennsylvania,  the  Ohio, 
and  the  Indiana,1  —  dismantled  and  split  her  in  twain,  just 
as  the  "  Kearsarge"  sent  the  "Alabama"  to  the  bottom 
of  the  sea.  Our  good  Ship  is  over  the  bar;  she  has 
passed  the  shoals ;  the  rocks  are  far  behind ;  she  rides  in 
deep  waters,  bound  for  the  haven  of  Union  and  Peace. 
She  is  well  manned  for  the  voyage ;  the  admiral  walks  the 
deck  as  hopefully  and  serenely  as  when  he  waited  for  vic- 
tory before  Vicksburg  or  Richmond.  She  is  freighted 
with  the  dearest  interests ;  she  bears  the  hopes  of  the 
human  family.  The  heavens  light  up  as  never  before  to 
guide  her  on  her  path  of  glory.  Oppressed  races  and 
classes  take  heart  and  are  glad  at  her  coming.  Spirits 
immortal,  who  ascended  from  battle- field  and  prison-pen, 
send  down  from  the  skies  their  benedictions  upon  her. 
All  is  well !  All  is  well ! 


The  speech  on  "  The  Two  Systems  of  Reconstruction  "  called 
forth  the  following  letters  to  Mr.  Pierce  :  — 

NATICK,  November  26,  1868. 

DEAR  PIERCE, —  I  have  just  finished  reading  your  speech,  and 
I  say  to  you  in  no  spirit  of  flattery  that  it  is  one  of  the  ablest 
speeches  of  the  canvass.  There  have  been  several  able  speeches 
made  during  the  canvass,  and  I  put  this  speech  of  yours  among 

1  An  allusion  to  recent  elections  in  these  three  States,  in  which  the 
Republicans  had  prevailed. 


1 84  TWO   SYSTEMS   OF   RECONSTRUCTION. 

the  very  best  in  all  respects.     I  read  it  with  pride,  and  congratu- 
late you  for  your  presentation  of  the  issues. 

Ever  yours, 

H.  WILSON. 

BOSTON,  16  December,  1868. 

Mv  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  hope  that  it  was  you  who  sent  me  a  copy  of 
your  Milton  address,  which  I  read  with  very  great  pleasure  and 
profit.  It  is  a  thorough  and  admirable  statement  of  the  question, 
which  fortunately  the  country  seemed  to  understand  much  better 
than  some  of  the  leaders.  ...  I  hope  all  goes  well  with  you,  and 
I  am  always 

Very  truly  yours, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 
MR.  PIERCE. 

NEW  YEAR'S  DAY,  '69. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  I  wish  you  a  happy  New  Year !  I  hope 
your  address  has  met  with  the  success  it  deserved.  None  so 
thoughtful  and  suggestive  was  made  during  the  whole  campaign. 

Ever  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 

WAYLAND,  January  14,  1869. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  liked  the  speech  extremely.  The  spirit  of  it 
pleased  me ;  and  the  clear,  concise  manner  in  which  the  wrongs 
of  Andy  Johnson's  administration  were  pointed  out  seemed  to  me 
singularly  well  adapted  to  produce  a  powerful  impression  on  the 
popular  mind.  I  have  never  read  what  seemed  to  me  a  better 
campaign  document,  and  being  "  a  strong-minded  woman "  I 
have  read  many. 

I  have  very  pleasant  recollections  of  conversations  with  you  dur- 
ing the  war ;  and  my  prayer  is,  that,  as  long  as  your  life  continues, 
you  may  go  on  consecrating  your  abilities  to  the  service  of  the 
good  and  the  true. 

Yours  very  respectfully, 

L.  MARIA  CHILD. 


GEORGE   S.   HILLARD.  185 


VI. 


THE  Suffolk  County  Bar  Association  held  a  meeting,  January  23, 
1879,  to  ta^e  notice  of  the  death  of  one  of  its  most  eminent  mem- 
bers, Hon.  George  S.  Hillard.  Mr.  Pierce,  also  a  member  of  the 
Suffolk  Bar  and  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Hillard,  delivered  on 
that  occasion  the  following  address  :  — 


GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 

THIS  afternoon  we  are  to  lay  in  his  grave  at  Mount 
Auburn  all  that  is  mortal  of  our  departed  brother.  In- 
vited last  evening  to  participate  in  this  tribute  of  the  bar 
to  his  memory,  I  confess  my  inability  to  speak  of  his  life 
and  character  in  a  manner  due  to  one  who  from  youth  to 
age  delighted  to  lay  chaste  and  affectionate  offerings  on 
the  graves  of  those  he  had  respected  and  loved. 

The  full  notices  of  Mr.  Hillard  which  have  appeared  in 
the  public  journals  since  his  death  make  it  unnecessary  to 
note  in  the  order  of  time  the  steps  of  his  career.  His  ex- 
cellent scholarship  and  great  promise  while  a  student  in 
the  Boston  Latin  school,  in  Harvard  College,  in  the  Dane 
Law  School,  —  where  he  was  a  favorite  pupil  of  Story,  — 
and  as  teacher  in  the  Round  Hill  school  at  Northampton 
are  remembered  by  our  older  citizens.  No  young  man 
in  the  history  of  the  city  has  probably  become  so  early  in 
his  career  a  central  figure  in  its  social  life  and  public 
affairs.  He  was  one  of  that  brilliant  circle  of  lawyers 


1 86  GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 

who  rented  offices  in  the  Brooks  building,  soon  after  its 
erection  on  the  present  site  of  the  Sears  building  on  Court 
Street.  There  was  his  partner  Charles  Sumner;  there 
also  were  Theophilus  Parsons,  Rufus  Choate,  the  brothers 
Chandler,  Horace  Mann,  Luther  S.  Gushing,  Edward  G. 
Loring,  and,  some  years  later,  John  A.  Andrew  and  Mr. 
Sanger,  the  present  United  States  District  Attorney.  The 
culture  and  friendliness  of  Hillard  and  Sumner  made  their 
office  the  common  resort  of  the  tenants  of  the  building, 
as  also  of  Judge  Story,  Greenleaf,  Felton,  Park  Benjamin, 
George  Bancroft,  and  of  Jeremiah  Mason  after  his  retire- 
ment from  the  profession.  We  have  eminent  lawyers 
now,  as  wise  and  strong  as  these;  but  where  shall  we 
find  in  our  professional  inns  the  attractions  of  those  well- 
remembered  rooms  of  "  Number  Four,"  where  Choate 
talked  extravagantly  of  Burke,  or  Mann  urged  with  the 
intensity  of  his  nature  interests  wider  than  those  of  the 
profession,  or  Sumner  compared  Story  with  Stowell,  Den- 
man,  Parke,  and  other  jurists,  always  to  the  advantage  of 
his  admired  master,  or  Hillard  poured  out  period  after 
period  fit  for  a  page  of  the  "  Spectator  "  ? 

Few  men  have  ever  lived  who  shared  so  abundantly  the 
quality  of  friendliness  as  did  Mr.  Hillard.  Recall,  if  you 
can,  your  first  interview  with  him,  and  you  will  recall  also 
what  an  interest  he  took  in  yourself  and  your  plans  of 
life  and  study;  and  then,  following  your  relations  with 
him  from  that  time,  you  will  bear  witness  that  his  inter- 
est was  sustained  to  the  end.  Nor  were  his  friendships 
limited  to  those  of  tastes  and  opinions  kindred  to  his  own, 
but  they  comprehended  as  well  others  radically  differing 
from  him,  for  he  was  eminently  catholic  in  his  sympa- 
thies with  men.  And  here  I  cordially  give  my  personal 
testimony.  Twenty  years  ago  and  more,  when  a  youth, 
I  was  kindly  received  by  him  at  his  house ;  and  during 


GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 


i87 


the  exciting  controversies  which  followed,  with  no  idem 
sentire  de  republica  to  unite  us,  and  widely  separated  in 
political  affiliations  as  we  were,  I  always  found  at  his 
fireside  a  gracious  and  hearty  welcome. 

Mr.  Hillard  had  a  rare  charity  in  estimating  the  char- 
acter of  public  men  from  whom  he  greatly  differed.  He 
saw  the  best  that  was  in  his  opponents,  and  always  gave 
them  credit  for  it.  He  would  state  their  peculiarities  and 
limitations,  but  do  it  fairly  and  without  prejudice.  He 
was  a  student  of  character  and  personal  life,  and  no  man 
among  us  could  compare  with  him  in  the  capacity  to 
report  truthfully  the  events  and  persons  of  his  youth  and 
early  manhood.  During  the  last  four  years,  the  period 
of  his  disability,  I  had  frequent  occasion  to  consult  him 
in  some  biographical  investigations  in  which  I  was  en- 
gaged, and  always  with  satisfaction.  He  had  definite 
recollections  where  others  had  entirely  forgotten  or  re- 
membered vaguely;  and  he  was  unfailing 'in  his  patience 
and  desire  to  serve.  When  we  consider  his  large  personal 
acquaintance  for  a  long  period  in  the  profession,  in  so- 
ciety, and  in  politics,  his  remarkable  memory,  and  his 
candid  judgment  of  men  and  affairs,  we  must  confess 
that  in  his  death  the  best  link  between  the  present  and 
the  preceding  generation  has  been  broken. 

As  we  join  in  this  tribute  to  our  friend  to-day,  we  are 
reminded  how  often  and  how  generously  he  did  this  ser- 
vice for  others.  His  eulogy  of  Webster,  delivered  by  ap- 
pointment from  the  city  authorities,  is  well  remembered. 
We  may  mention  in  this  connection  his  share  in  the  biog- 
raphy of  Mr.  Ticknor,  his  valuable  memorials  of  Henry 
R.  Cleveland,  Jeremiah  Mason,  James  Brown,  Judge 
Story,  President  Felton,  and  James  Savage ;  his  tribute  to 
Crawford,  and  his  briefer  sketches  in  the  public  jour- 
nals of  many  valued  friends,  among  whom  I  recall  Francis 


1 88  GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 

Lieber,  Horace  Binney,  and  the  English  barrister  Robert 
Ingham. 

The  early  friendship  of  Mr.  Hillard  and  Charles  Sumner 
is  a  part  of  our  local  history.  They  were  both  cherished 
pupils  of  Story.  They  were  partners  at  the  beginning  of 
their  practice  of  the  law,  and  so  remained  for  twelve  years 
or  more.  No  one  can  read  Mr.  Hillard's  private  letters 
of  that  period,  as  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  do,  without 
being  impressed  by  his  fidelity  in  friendship,  and  by  the 
genuineness  and  tenderness  of  his  nature.  The  two  friends 
never  lost  their  interest  in  each  other,  though  their  politi- 
cal paths  diverged,  and  during  the  struggle  against  slav- 
ery, which  so  often  divided  families  and  friends,  they  met 
infrequently.  In  later  life,  as  the  shadows  lengthened  and 
the  public  questions  in  a  measure  shifted,  they  renewed 
their  ancient  relations  of  personal  sympathy.  No  man 
has  been  more  anxious  to  preserve  for  posterity  the  char- 
acter and  services  of  the  illustrious  Senator  than  this  early 
friend  ;  and  the  Senator  while  generally  opposing  President 
Johnson's  nominations  gladly  made  that  of  Mr.  Hillard 
an  exception,  and  joined  heartily  in  his  confirmation  as 
United  States  District  Attorney. 

It  is  difficult  to  treat  with  perfect  frankness  the  life  of 
one  so  much  associated  with  public  interests  as  Mr.  Hil- 
lard was,  without  some  reference  to  his  relations  to  the 
political  questions  of  his  time,  and  most  of  all  to  the 
historic  movement  which  ended  in  the  abolition  of  slav- 
ery. Silence  here  would  argue  an  unwillingness  to  speak 
of  this  part  of  his  career ;  moreover,  that  biography  and 
in  memoriam  are  the  best  which  challenge  inspection  on 
all  points.  In  his  youth,  Mr.  Hillard  sat  often  at  the  feet 
of  Channing,  attended  his  public  ministrations,  and  as- 
sisted in  the  revision  of  his  paper  on  "  The  Duty  of  the 
Free  States."  He  became  naturally,  with  this  association, 


GEORGE   S.   HILLARD.  189 

interested  in  antislavery,  temperance,  prison  discipline,  and 
kindred  reforms.  In  December,  1837,  he  joined  in  a  pub- 
lic meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  called  to  denounce  the  assassi- 
nation of  Lovejoy,  speaking  from  the  platform  with  Dr. 
Channing  and  Wendell  Phillips,  a  young  lawyer  of  that 
day  who  there  began  his  celebrated  career  as  an  orator. 
In  the  same  hall,  in  1845  an<3  on  other  occasions  at  this 
period,  he  addressed  his  fellow-citizens,  in  a  similar  spirit, 
on  our  national  relations  to  the  institution  of  slavery.  But 
his  public  connection  with  the  struggle  against  slavery 
ended  here.  The  capital  and  public  opinion  of  the  ruling 
classes  of  this  community  were  arrayed  against  the  further 
agitation  of  the  question,  and  a  social  pressure  was  laid  on 
all  who  refused  to  acquiesce,  such  as  was  never  known  be- 
fore and  is  not  possible  in  our  day.  Some  of  us,  contem- 
plating our  country  now  free  from  ocean  to  ocean,  regret 
that  the  disciple  of  Channing  did  not  persevere  in  the  path 
to  which  his  youthful  feet  had  been  directed.  But  all 
men  are  not  born  to  be  Luthers  and  Miltons,  to  contend 
against  power  and  to  endure  proscription  and  exile.  Our 
friend,  sensitive  by  nature,  sympathetic  with  the  society 
around  him,  was  not  fitted  for  aggressive  warfare  at  the 
bar  or  in  popular  agitations.  We  have  lived  long  enough, 
we  have  seen  our  path  behind  so  often  strewn  with  errors 
and  shortcomings,  and  we  have  had  so  many  occasions 
to  take  new  observations  in  our  course,  that  we  can  well 
afford  to  be  charitable  to  those  who  did  not  see  truth  and 
duty  as  we  saw  them.  Let  this  be  added  of  Mr.  Hillard, 
that  the  misfortunes  of  the  African  race  always  moved  his 
sympathy.  Fugitive  slaves,  in  times  of  terror,  found 
refuge  under  his  roof,  sheltered  directly  by  his  wife,  and 
with  his  full  knowledge  and  consent. 

A  note  to  Mr.  Sumner,  which  Mr.  Hillard  wrote  when 
leaving  for  Europe  in   1847,  reveals  his  inner  thought  on 


1 90  GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 

this  part  of  his  career:  "  We  have  sometimes  differed  of 
iate  years,  but  our  differences  have  been  such  as  flowed 
inevitably  from  diversity  of  organization  and  temperament. 
I  have  never  loved  you  the  less.  If  there  has  ever  been 
anything  in  my  manner  from  which  a  different  inference 
might  have  been  drawn  (I  don't  say  that  you  have  drawn 
it),  forgive  it  and  forget  it:  look  upon  it  as  a  cloud  bred 
of  my  infirmities  and  not  myself.  You  do  not,  cannot, 
know  how  sorely  I  have  been  tried  in  all  sorts  of  ways. 
You  have  seen  where  I  have  yielded,  but  not  known  how 
much  I  have  resisted.  Do  not  allude  to  these  things  in 
our  correspondence.  I  write  these  words  for  you  to  think 
upon  in  case  we  should  never  meet  again." 

In  any  complete  estimate  of  Mr.  Hillard  his  imperfect 
health  through  life  must  be  taken  into  account.  From  his 
youth,  while  others  were  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  strength 
and  buoyant  spirits,  he  was  an  invalid,  and  he  was  often 
the  victim  of  depression.  How  greatly  such  ill-fortune 
limits  the  capacities  and  shadows  the  career  is  but  too 
well  known. 

Mr.  Hillard's  literary  labors  were  various.  Besides  his 
biographies  and  sketches  already  referred  to,  his  edition 
of  Spenser,  his  "  Selections  "  from  Landor,  his  translations 
of  Guizot's  "Washington,"  his  Life  of  Captain  John  Smith, 
his  literary  and  commemorative  addresses,  his  school- 
books  packed  with  the  choicest  passages  of  our  literature 
and  illustrated  with  his  instructive  notes  upon  authors 
and  books,  his  "  Six  Months  in  Italy,"  the  best  vade 
mecum  for  the  art  and  historical  associations  of  that 
country  until  Mr.  Hare's  "  Walks,"  —  all  a  worthy  monu- 
ment of  well-used  powers,  —  are  stored  in  our  libraries. 
Twice,  at  least,  in  early  life,  he  produced  a  remarkable 
effect  as  an  orator.  His  Phi  Beta  Kappa  address  in  1843 
on  "The  Relation  of  the  Poet  to  his  Age  "  was  pronounced 


GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 


191 


by  John  Quincy  Adams  the  finest  he  had  ever  heard  ;  and 
his  Lowell  lectures  on  John  Milton  in  1847  fascinated  the 
most  cultivated  people  of  this  city,  who  for  twelve  evenings 
filled  Tremont  Temple. 

Mrs.  Grote  has  said  of  Charles  Austin,  the  eminent 
English  lawyer,  who  was  the  disciple  of  Bentham,  and 
more  than  a  match  for  Macaulay  at  Cambridge,  that  he 
was  "  the  first  of  conversers."  Mr.  Hillard  was,  all  things 
considered,  the  best  converser  this  community  has  ever 
enjoyed.  He  had  none  of  the  perpetual  flow  of  Macaulay, 
or  the  pointed  wit  of  Sydney  Smith.  He  delighted  to 
listen  to  others,  and  to  draw  from  them  their  best.  He 
was  always  cheerful,  had  the  finest  things  in  literature  at 
ready  command,  and  there  was  a  marvellous  felicity  in  all 
he  said.  It  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  sat  at  the 
breakfast-table  of  Samuel  Rogers,  or  in  the  dining-halls 
of  Holland  and  Landsdowne  houses,  that  in  conversation 
he  had  few,  if  any,  superiors  among  English  men  of  letters. 
Surely  his  opportunities  for  acquiring  this  rare  and  noble 
faculty  were  unrivalled  among  his  countrymen.  In  his 
early  manhood  he  was  one  of  the  "  Five  of  Clubs,"  of 
whom  the  others  were  Felton,  Longfellow,  Sumner,  and 
Henry  R.  Cleveland,  — a  fellowship  of  gifted  youths,  of 
which  biography  gives  few  parallels.  Other  companions 
of  his  youth  were  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  Park 
Benjamin.  Later,  he  was  of  the  distinguished  group  of 
scholars  who  gathered  often  at  the  table  of  Prescott,  — 
among  them  Sparks,  Bancroft,  Ticknor,  Palfrey,  and  Fel- 
ton. With  Mr.  Ticknor  his  relations  were  most  intimate. 
He  was  an  early  friend  of  Dr.  Francis  Lieber,  and  de- 
voted much  time  to  the  revision  of  the  doctor's  "Political 
Ethics  "  before  its  first  publication,  —  one  of  the  many 
kind  offices  which  he  was  always  doing  for  authors.  All 
these  opportunities  were  supplemented  by  unceasing 


192  GEORGE    S.   HILLARD. 

devotion  to  literature,  and  by  two  European  journeys. 
Natural  gifts  and  a  complete  discipline  were  happily 
joined  in  this  accomplished  man. 

Others  here  will  speak  of  Mr.  Hillard  at  the  bar,  in  the 
business  of  his  office,  and  as  the  attorney  of  the  govern- 
ment. Let  me  add  that,  associated  with  him  as  an  in- 
structor in  the  Boston  Law  School,  of  which  he  was  the 
first  dean,  I  can  bear  witness  to  his  success  as  a  teacher, 
and  to  his  constant  interest  in  the  students.  After  his 
partial  recovery  from  his  first  stroke  of  paralysis,  he  at- 
tended an  evening  reunion  of  the  graduates  of  the  school 
(perhaps  his  last  participation  in  any  public  festivities), 
and  in  reply  to  a  sentiment  spoke  but  a  single  sentence, 
but  that  one  marked  by  the  felicity  of  expression  which 
never  failed  him:  "To  an  invalid  there  is  no  medicine  so 
grateful  as  the  faces  of  his  friends." 

During  his  prolonged  disability  of  five  years  he  bore 
himself  patiently,  submissive  to  Providence,  cheerful  with 
his  imperfect  utterance,  his  old  man's  walk  and  his  useless 
right  hand,  willing  that  the  end  should  come,  but  trusting 
that  he  should  escape  pain  and  loss  of  intellectual  power. 
His  wish  was  gratified.  To  the  last  his  mind  worked  per- 
fectly; his  gift  of  classic  English  style,  his  interest  in 
current  events,  remained  in  full  vigor.  To  this  period, 
the  last  year  of  his  life,  belongs  his  memorial  of  James 
Savage.  Nothing  gladdened  him  so  much  as  to  be  re- 
membered and  called  upon  by  friends;  and  I  count 
among  precious  memories  my  visits  to  his  home  at 
Longwood,  to  which,  in  recent  years,  he  had  been  con- 
fined. A  letter  to  myself,  dictated  by  him  (his  last  one) 
two  days  before  the  final  attack,  closed  with  these  words : 
"  I  am  as  well  as  an  invalid  of  seventy  can  expect  to  be, 
grateful  for  many  comforts  and  blessings." 


GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 


193 


Our  beloved  friend  had  reached  the  age  of  three-score 
years  and  ten,  —  the  measure  appointed  for  human  life. 
He  carries  to  his  grave  the  benedictions  of  many  of  all 
ages  and  conditions,  who  will  remember  his  kindness  till 
they  in  their  turn  shall  take  their  place  by  his  side.  There 
will  come,  from  time  to  time,  abler  jurists,  more  skilful 
advocates,  more  aggressive  reformers  than  he;  but  we 
shall  always  miss  that  rare  combination  of  courtesy,  cul- 
ture, refined  sensibility,  a  memory  rich  in  reminiscence,  an 
unfailing  friendliness,  a  charity  for  all,  which  it  was  our 
privilege  to  enjoy  in  the  companionship  of  him  whom  we 
are  to  bear  this  day  in  solemn  procession  to  his  final 
rest. 


The  following  letters  fittingly  belong  here,  —  the  one  from 
Mrs.  Hillard,  who  survived  her  husband  only  a  few  months,  hav- 
ing special  interest :  — 

WEST  NEW  BRIGHTON,  STATEN  ISLAND  N.  J., 
I  February,  1879. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  admirable  sketch  of 
Hillard,  and  for  the  careful  skill  with  which  it  is  done.  Those 
who  knew  him  know  how  hard  a  task  you  had,  to  be  both  just 
and  true.  For  some  months  I  was  with  him  intimately  in  Europe, 
and  I  had  always  a  certain  tenderness  of  feeling  for  him,  although 
we  never  met  in  later  years.  Indeed,  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
seen  him  during  more  than  twenty  years.  Yet  the  morning  in  the 
Tyrol  is  still  as  bright  in  my  memory  as  yesterday  when  Hillard 
stopped  and  said  to  me,  "  Don't  think  that  I  don't  enjoy  it  as 
much  as  you  because  I  am  older !  " 

I  send  you  my  address  on  Bryant,  and  I  am  always 

Very  truly  yours, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 
'3 


194  GEORGE   S.   HILLARD. 

PROVIDENCE,  February  5,  1877. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  beg  you  to  accept  my  thanks  for  the  copy 
of  your  admirable  tribute  to  the  late  Mr.  Hillard,  which  I  have 
read  with  the  greatest  satisfaction.  In  these  days  of  fulsome  and 
often  insincere  compliment,  it  is  refreshing  to  read  such  an  honest 
and  discriminating  estimate.  I  do  not  see  how  it  could  have 
been  done  better.  I  am 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  DIMAN. 
MR.  EDWARD  L.  PIERCE. 


55  GARDEN  STREET,  CAMBRIDGE, 
February  15,  1879. 

MY  DEAR  Mr.  PIERCE,  —  I  read  your  appreciative  words  with 
much  gratification.  Allow  me  to  thank  you  for  the  pleasure  I 
enjoyed,  through  my  old  friend  James  B.  Thayer,  in  reading  your 
memoir  of  Charles  Sumner.  The  book,  besides  recalling  many 
pleasant  memories  of  the  good  old  times,  reminded  me  of  many 
agreeable  evenings  of  a  more  recent  period,  when  the  events  nar- 
rated by  you  were  talked  over  in  our  little  parlor  on  Pinckney 
Street.  As  I  write  of  old  times,  there  comes  the  remembrance  of 
that  lovely  autumn  day  when  you  and  Mrs.  Pierce  took  my  hus- 
band and  myself  on  that  delightful  drive,  and  visited  with  us  your 
brother's  home.  This  often  comes  up  to  me  as  almost  the  last 
pleasant  day  of  my  life,  and  I  am  always  grateful  to  you  for  it. 
With  kind  remembrance  to  Mrs.  Pierce, 

I  am  yours  sincerely, 

SUSAN  T.  HILLARD. 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON.  195 


VII. 


OF  Mr.  Pierce's  address  at  the  dedication  of  Milton's  new  Town 
Hall,  February  17,  1876,  which  next  follows,  the  "Boston  Daily 
Advertiser  "  of  February  18,  1879,  says:  "The  occasion  was  of 
local  concern  chiefly,  but  Mr.  Pierce's  oration  conferred  upon  it  a 
dignity  which  makes  it  interesting  to  a  wider  circle  than  the  peo- 
ple of  that  town ;  and  we  are  sure  it  will  be  read  with  pleasure, 
not  more  for  its  agreeable  sketch  of  the  history  of  Milton,  and  its 
just  appreciation  of  the  importance  in  our  civic  system  of  the  town 
organization,  than  for  its  admirable  literary  and  rhetorical  quality, 
Mr.  Pierce  has  on  several  recent  occasions  so  handsomely  ac- 
quitted himself  as  a  felicitous  public  speaker,  that  Massachusetts 
may  congratulate  herself  that,  in  spite  of  great  losses,  she  does 
not  yet  lack  an  orator  who  can  honor  any  occasion  by  the  ele- 
vation of  his  sentiments  and  the  graces  of  effective,  vigorous, 
and  scholarly  speech." 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

As  citizens  of  Milton  we  meet  this  evening  to  recognize 
the  completion  of  our  new  Town  House.  This  is  one  of 
those  municipal  events,  occurring  but  rarely  in  the  life  of 
a  civic  community,  which  it  is  fitting  to  commemorate  with 
simple  and  appropriate  ceremonies.  The  interest  which 
the  citizen  takes  in  his  town,  his  desire  to  serve  it,  his 
pride  in  its  history,  his  regard  for  those  who  are  identified 
with  him  in  the  neighborhood,  lie  at  the  foundation  of  that 
patriotism  which,  in  its  higher  and  broader  sphere,  com- 
prehends his  State  and  his  country. 


196  THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

The  New  England  town  has  been  the  study  of  our 
thoughtful  statesmen,  and  has  attracted  the  attention  of 
foreign  observers.  It  is  the  opposite  of  the  system  of  cen- 
tralization, which,  refusing  the  people  of  each  district  or 
subdivision  of  the  State  the  direction  of  what  immediately 
concerns  them,  lodges  all  power  in  a  central  administra- 
tion. It  is  thus  broadly  distinguished  from  the  munici- 
pal institutions  of  France,  which  are  subject  to  the  central 
will  at  Paris,  whether  imperial  or  republican.  It  is  also, 
within  its  defined  limits,  the  simplest  and  purest  democ- 
racy. In  the  government  of  cities  or  dense  popula- 
tions it  becomes  necessary  to  intrust  to  some  board  or 
council  the  direction  of  affairs,  leaving  only  to  the  people 
the  election  of  its  members ;  but,  without  such  necessity, 
this  same  method  is,  outside  New  England,  generally  ap- 
plied to  towns.  With  us,  however,  the  power  over  do- 
mestic concerns  remains  at  its  source,  without  surrender 
or  delegation.  The  town,  to  be  sure,  has  none  of  the 
attributes  of  sovereignty;  it  cannot  declare  war,  make 
treaties,  enact  laws  or  establish  courts,  but  it  deals  with 
those  primary,  ever-present  interests  which  lie  at  our 
hearthstones,  which  make  our  daily  life. 

The  citizens  in  town-meeting  choose  a  moderator,  who 
directs  their  deliberations,  and  enforces  order.  They  elect 
numerous  magistrates  and  officers,  —  the  administrators  of 
their  revenues,  the  conservators  of  order,  the  custodians 
of  the  public  property,  the  managers  of  various  public 
concerns.  They  deliberate  on  a  series  of  propositions 
duly  advertised,  with  the  right  of  each  citizen  to  express 
fully  his  opinions,  and  then  by  ballot  —  the  responsive 
aye  and  no,  the  uplifted  hand,  or  the  division  of  the  house 
—  establish  and  support  schools,  open  and  repair  high- 
ways, establish  systems  of  water  supply  and  sewerage, 
erect  public  buildings,  provide  for  the  relief  of  the  poor 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 


197 


and  the  burial  of  the  dead,  organize  a  police,  determine 
methods  of  protection  against  fire  and  disease,  direct  and 
limit  expenditures,  authorize  loans  and  levy  taxes.  Each 
citizen  speaks  with  an  equal  voice,  and  gives  an  equal 
vote.  In  the  exercise  of  functions  which  thus  belong  to 
each,  in  the  bearing  of  burdens  which  are  shared  by  all, 
the  town  becomes  the  common  centre  of  interests  and 
affections.  Thus  is  constituted  a  miniature  republic 
founded  on  the  principle  that  each  man  is  the  best  judge 
of  what  most  interests  himself.  Here  is  power  distributed 
widely  among  the  people,  left  at  its  original  source,  —  not 
absorbed  in  some  national  capital,  swayed  by  a  single 
hand  and  administered  by  a  central  bureau.  Here  the 
civic  faculty  is  developed  in  the  discharge  of  official  trusts 
by  various  functionaries,  in  the  deliberations  and  votes  of 
all  the  citizens. 

Not  in  ancient,  not  in  modern  times  has  there  been  such 
a  school  of  republican  liberty,  such  a  nursery  of  active, 
healthy  patriotism  as  a  New  England  town-meeting, 
where  civic  duty  is  taught;  where  self-restraint  and  sub- 
mission to  lawful  authority  are  practised ;  where  parlia- 
mentary law  is  enforced ;  where  the  equality  of  all  men  is 
present  to  the  eye,  is  seen  in  the  equal  rights  accorded  in 
debate,  in  the  equal  value  given  to  all  ballots,  irrespective 
of  age,  descent,  fortune,  or  education.  A  vigorous  public 
spirit  and  a  generous  devotion  to  the  common  weal  are 
born  of  the  sense  of  common  interests,  common  burdens, 
and  common  duties.  The  forms  essential  to  civil  society 
are  observed  with  such  yearly  repetition  that  they  become 
a  second  nature.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  town  is  confined, 
indeed,  to  its  own  limits  and  to  questions  which  are, 
on  the  whole,  easy  of  comprehension;  but  they  involve 
principles  and  methods  of  analysis,  investigation,  and 
judgment  which  are  of  wide  application,  and  they  test 


198  THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

capacity  and  moral  purpose.  He  who  knows  by  observa- 
tion and  study  how  schools  should  be  taught,  highways 
built  and  maintained,  water  introduced  and  sewage  dis- 
posed of,  the  poor  relieved,  vagrants  disciplined,  expen- 
ditures adjusted  and  limited,  —  all  with  wisdom  and 
economy, —  is  fitted  to  comprehend  and  act  upon  the 
broader  questions  which  affect  states  and  nations.  Phi- 
losophers have  dreamed  of  ideal  republics,  speculated  on 
the  art  of  government,  and  constructed  model  constitu- 
tions ;  but  the  plain  citizen  who  has  been  trained  in  self- 
control,  obedience  to  law,  respect  for  the  opinions  of  his  fel- 
lows, and  in  a  wise  economy  has  acquired  a  discipline  and 
faculty  not  to  be  attained  in  the  study  of  Plato  and  Locke. 

Thomas  Jefferson  thought  our  New  England  towns  "  the 
most  perfect  specimens  of  government  in  the  world,"  and 
endeavored  in  vain  to  establish  them  in  the  institutions  of 
Virginia.  John  Adams  insisted  often  on  their  educating 
power  in  connection  with  the  schools,  the  churches,  and  the 
militia.  "  The  virtues  and  talents  of  the  people,"  said  he 
in  1786,  "are  here  formed,  —  their  temperance,  patience, 
fortitude,  prudence,  and  justice,  as  well  as  their  sagacity, 
knowledge,  judgment,  taste,  skill,  ingenuity,  dexterity, 
and  industry."  De  Tocqueville,  who  of  all  foreigners  has 
applied  the  most  catholic  judgment  to  our  civil  polity  and 
social  character,  described  them  in  detail  in  his  "  Democ- 
racy in  America,"  as  training-schools  for  citizens,  and 
presenting  a  contrast  to  the  centralized  system  of  France. 

I  have  touched  upon  the  usual  functions  of  town-meet- 
ings ;  but  there  come  also,  now  and  then,  extraordinary 
epochs,  as  in  the  Revolution  and  our  Civil  War,  when  they 
serve  a  national  purpose,  —  raising  volunteers  for  the 
common  defence,  and  anticipating  with  their  quick  patri- 
otism the  needs  of  the  State  and  nation.  The  formulas  in 
which  the  Continental  Congress  declared  the  rights  of  col- 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 


199 


onies  and  of  men  were  often  almost  literally  the  repetition 
of  what  had  again  and  again  been  resolved  in  these  local 
assemblies. 

The  duty  which  we  owe  to  our  town  is  not  limited  to  its 
narrow  jurisdiction;  it  is  comprehensive  in  its  relations. 
The  vote  here  given  runs  along  the  lines  of  influence  and 
power  till  it  is  felt  in  the  national  Capitol  itself.  The 
future  of  our  republic  rests  on  the  loyalty,  the  intelligence, 
the  self-control,  the  conscience  of  the  people,  as  they  are 
kept  alive  and  developed  in  multitudinous  local  centres 
like  our  own. 

Fellow-citizens,  we  have  left  this  evening  our  individual 
homes,  which  are  expressive  of  our  means  and  of  our  tastes. 
There  we  have  lived  as  families ;  there  we  were  born,  and 
children  have  been  born  to  us ;  there  death  has  thinned 
our  numbers;  there  are  enshrined  the  memories  of  our 
private  hopes,  affections,  griefs,  all  the  manifold  experi- 
ences of  domestic  life.  But  this  building  is  to  have  far 
different  associations  and  answer  a  far  different  purpose. 
It  is  the  property,  not  of  one  or  of  several,  but  of  all.  It 
is  the  house  of  the  people,  in  which  all  citizens  of  both 
sexes  and  all  ages  have  each  an  undivided  and  indivisible 
share,  to  be  transmitted  to  those  who,  so  long  as  it  shall 
stand,  shall  have  their  domicile  or  home  within  the  bound- 
aries of  the  town.  It  is  to  remain  a  common  possession 
and  inheritance,  devoted  to  the  common  purposes  of  citi- 
zenship. Welcome,  then,  fellow-citizens,  to  your  own 
house,  which  is  to  be  owned,  used,  and  protected  by 
yourselves,  by  all  the  citizens  of  the  town ! 

Town-meetings  were  held  until  1836  in  the  parish  meet- 
ing-house, now  belonging  to  the  First  Congregational 
(Unitarian)  Society.  In  that  and  the  succeeding  year 
they  were  held  in  the  stone  meeting-house  at  the  Railway 
Village.  In  1838  the  town  occupied  its  first  town-house, 


200  THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

then  just  completed,  which  still  stands  a  few  feet  to  the 
south  of  this  new  one,  and  now  looks  meagre  by  contrast, 
—  costing,  with  land  included,  the  modest  sum  of  $2684.32, 
and  paid  for  out  of  the  surplus  revenue  which  the  United 
States  had  divided  among  the  States,  this  Commonwealth 
dividing  its  share  among  the  towns.  The  old  house,  to 
which  now  after  forty  years  of  use  we  bid  adieu,  has 
witnessed  important  deliberations,  stirring  debates,  divi- 
sions of  opinion,  which  we  ourselves  shall  long  remember, 
and  which  local  history  will  preserve.  It  has  in  recent 
years  proved  unequal  to  our  needs,  particularly  at  the 
general  town-meeting  in  the  spring,  always  fully  attended, 
where  all  our  various  municipal  interests  are  debated  and 
decided.  The  project  of  a  new  one,  more  spacious  and 
substantial,  had  been  to  some  extent  discussed  in  previous 
years ;  but  as  so  large  an  outlay  required  serious  consid- 
eration, and  public  opinion  had  not  yet  matured,  we  waited 
for  a  more  convenient  season.  At  our  meeting  in  March 
last,  with  no  previous  agitation  and  with  unexpected  una- 
nimity, the  town  voted  to  erect  a  new  town-house,  and 
appropriated  for  the  purpose  the  liberal  sum  of  thirty-five 
thousand  dollars.  It  appointed  a  committee  to  execute 
the  vote,  and  by  formal  action  refused  to  hamper  their  dis- 
cretion, either  as  to  design  or  material.  That  committee 
has  in  less  than  a  twelvemonth  performed  its  duty,  and 
now  surrenders  its  trust.  It  has  during  the  intervening 
period  been  in  frequent  session,  and  its  sub-committees 
have  been  in  almost  daily  activity.  Let  me  in  this  pres- 
ence bear  witness  to  a  fact,  unhappily  not  always  true  of 
committees.  There  has  been  no  bickering  or  mistrust  in 
its  deliberations,  no  cliques  formed  within  it,  no  self-seek- 
ing, no  attempt  by  any  of  its  members  to  obtain  jobs  or 
favors  for  his  friends ;  but  each  has  seemed  to  have  an 
honest  purpose  to  do  his  very  best  by  the  town  which 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON.  2OI 

placed  its  confidence  in  him.  Upon  all  the  questions, 
some  of  which  led  naturally  to  opposite  views,  discussion 
brought  harmony  of  judgment.  In  a  single  instance 
only — the  choice  of  a  plan  —  was  there  any  substantial 
difference  of  opinion ;  and  even  then,  when  the  decisive 
vote  had  been  taken,  the  minority  was  as  earnest  as  the 
majority  in  carrying  out  in  the  best  possible  manner  the 
plan  selected.  The  committee  has  administered  an  appro- 
priation many  times  larger  than  the  town  has  ever  before 
intrusted  to  any  committee  or  official  board ;  and  it  has 
caused  the  building  to  be  erected,  the  grounds  to  be  pre- 
pared, and  incidental  expenses  to  be  met,  without  exceed- 
ing the  limit  of  expenditure  which  was  imposed.  There 
has  been  no  loss  from  change  of  plan  during  the  construc- 
tion, and  the  town  has,  as  we  are  assured,  its  full  money's 
worth.  Not  a  dollar  has  been  used  to  pay  for  any  services 
or  expenses  of  any  member  of  the  committee,  but  the 
whole  fund,  without  subtraction,  has  been  spent  on  the 
public  object  to  which  it  was  devoted.  Not  having  been 
a  member  of  either  of  the  sub-committees  who  were 
charged  with  the  immediate  supervision  of  the  work,  I 
feel  justified  in  bearing  this  testimony.  In  these  days, 
when  so  much  is  said  of  the  selfishness  of  public  agents 
and  of  their  disregard  of  the  limits  of  their  trust,  it  is  well 
to  put  on  record  such  an  instance  of  official  fidelity  and  of 
scrupulous  respect  for  law  and  authority. 

The  work,  as  now  completed,  will,  I  am  confident,  meet 
with  general  and  permanent  favor.  There  are  always 
aesthetic  questions,  particularly  in  architecture,  which  in 
our  time  copies  and  combines  the  styles  of  all  countries 
and  periods,  on  which  artists  and  amateurs  disagree;  but 
I  believe  that  the  design  which  our  architects  made  will 
be  approved  by  the  educated  as  well  as  by  the  common 
taste. 


2O2  THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

Look  about  you,  and  you  will  see  that  this  main  hall  is 
spacious ;  the  platform  not  remote  from  any  point,  so  that 
the  moderator  or  public  speaker  can  be  readily  heard  in 
every  part  of  it;  finished  in  good  taste;  well  lighted; 
easily  accessible,  without  the  necessity  for  old  and  dis- 
abled people  to  mount  a  weary  staircase.  There  is  a 
smaller  hall  for  meetings  when  the  attendance  may  not  be 
numerous,  a  commodious  room  for  the  selectmen,  a  capa- 
cious fire-proof  vault  for  our  public  records,  some  of 
which  are  ancient  and  precious,  and  convenient  provision 
by  means  of  ante-rooms  and  kitchen  for  social  festivities. 

Let  me  emphasize  this  last  need  which  this  new  build- 
ing is  to  meet.  An  important  truth  which  our  fathers 
undervalued  is  now  invariably  acknowledged,  and  it  is 
this,  —  that  the  moral  and  religious  culture  which  saves 
from  vice  and  crime  must  be  reinforced  by  recreations  and 
amusements  which  minister  to  the  social  nature.  This 
hall,  built  primarily  as  a  place  where  citizens  are  to  meet 
and  legislate  on  town  affairs,  may  be  used  for  a  lecture- 
room ;  its  floor  is  fitted  for  the  movement  of  feet  to  music, 
and  refreshments  can  be  served  in  the  adjoining  hall. 
Here,  then,  our  town-meetings  are  to  be  held  with  ample 
room  for  all  voters,  and  a  gallery  from  which  spectators 
of  both  sexes  may  observe  their  deliberations;  here  we 
may  assemble  to  discuss  and  determine  action  in  sea- 
sons of  public  peril,  whether  of  peace  or  war;  here 
discourses  on  science,  literature,  and  moral  interests  may 
be  given ;  here  school  reunions  and  other  festivals  may 
be  held ;  here  charity,  asking  help  for  good  causes, 
may  receive  offerings  in  money  or  handiwork ;  here  the 
music  of  human  voices  and  of  instruments  may  charm  and 
elevate;  here  amateurs  from  our  schools  and  homes  may 
amuse  and  instruct  in  plays,  comic  and  serious ;  here  our 
young  men  and  maidens  may  enjoy  the  dance;  here,  in  a 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 


2O3 


word,  all  civic  duties  and  all  social  offices  and  interests 
may  have  a  place.  A  marble  tablet  under  the  arch  at  the 
main  entrance  awaits  the  names  of  soldiers  who  died  for 
their  country  in  our  Civil  War,  and  an  inscription  commem- 
orative of  their  fidelity  and  services.  This  will  be  deemed 
a  worthier  memorial  of  those  who  saved  this  nation  from 
dismemberment  and  dedicated  it  to  liberty,  than  would  a 
monument  perhaps  unsightly  and  answering  no  purpose 
either  of  taste  or  utility. 

Citizens,  we  now  deliver  to  your  hands  this  substantial 
edifice,  complete  in  its  appointments,  built  of  the  best 
materials,  and  faithfully  constructed,  as  we  believe,  in  all 
its  parts.  Unless  destroyed  by  some  casualty,  it  will  an- 
swer the  needs  of  the  town  for  a  long  time  to  come.  It 
is  difficult  to  foresee  any  changes  in  population,  society, 
or  taste,  or  any  municipal  occasions,  which  will  call  in 
our  day  for  one  more  spacious  or  differently  arranged. 1 

This  building  adds  another  to  the  attractions  and  advan- 
tages of  our  town.  We  have  highways  which,  though 
needing  reconstruction  on  an  improved  system  and  repa- 
ration from  time  to  time,  rest  on  the  excellent  granite 
foundation  which  Nature  laid  for  them.  We  have  a  pub- 
lic library  of  well-chosen  books,  established  in  1871,  and 
numbering  eight  thousand  volumes,  which  has  proved  of 
great  service  to  our  people,  particularly  to  the  young. 
We  have  a  cemetery,  extending  from  the  place  of  ancient 
sepulture  over  spacious  grounds  diversified  with  plain  and 
elevation,  well  shaded  by  native  and  transplanted  trees, 
laid  out  in  open  avenues  and  winding  paths,  beautified 
at  the  public  as  well  as  private  expense,  —  the  simplicity 
and  loveliness  of  Nature  not  obscured  by  too  much  art 
and  elaboration,  —  fit  resting-place  for  our  beloved  dead. 

1  The  population  of  the  town  made  an  unexpected  increase  from  2738 
in  1875  to  SS1^  in  1895. 


204  THE  TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

We  are  grateful  to  the  good  citizens  whose  constant  interest 
has,  without  sensation  or  burdensome  expenditure,  secured 
for  us  this  hallowed  ground. 

In  the  pleasant  places  where  our  lines  have  fallen  we 
have  blessings  which  come  to  us  without  effort  or  sacri- 
fice of  ourselves  or  our  fathers.  There  are  no  four  square 
miles  in  our  country  —  perhaps,  without  exaggeration,  we 
might  add  on  the  globe  —  more  endowed  with  all  that  is 
attractive  in  scenery  than  those  which  are  covered  by  our 
municipal  jurisdiction.  Here  are  no  morasses,  no  pesti- 
lential districts,  no  blasted  heaths,  no  wastes  where  all  is 
parched,  scraggy,  and  repulsive,  no  dead  level  wearisome 
to  eye  or  feet;  but  the  whole  space  is  filled  with  a  pure  and 
health-bringing  air  which  rises  from  the  sea  and  descends 
from  the  hills,  spread  out  in  varied  landscapes,  diversi- 
fied with  uplands  and  intervals,  with  forests  and  fields, 
watered  by  unfailing  brooks,  and  even  the  hills  fed  by 
perpetual  springs.  Here  in  our  fair  heritage  are  com- 
bined the  Blue  Hills  to  the  south,  from  which  came,  ac- 
cording to  Roger  Williams,  the  Indian  name  of  our 
beloved  Commonwealth,  —  Massachusetts;  the  Neponset 
River  flowing  along  our  northern  border,  and  the  ocean 
view  to  the  east.  You  who  have  journeyed  in  other  lands, 
along  the  Charente,  the  Loire,  or  the  Arno,  what  fairer 
prospect  have  you  seen  than  that  which  the  eye  sweeps  as 
you  stand  on  Milton  Hill,  looking  on  the  river  as  with 
changing  tides  it  spreads  out  a  broad  lake  or  withdraws  to 
its  narrow  bed ;  on  eminences  crowned  with  villas ;  on  vil- 
lages nestling  in  valleys  or  covering  elevations ;  on  church 
spires  testifying  to  Christian  worship ;  on  the  islands  and 
beacon  lights  in  the  harbor  of  New  England's  metropolis ; 
on  ships  departing  and  returning  on  their  errands  of  com- 
merce and  civilization?1 

1  Governor   Hutchinson,   the    last    Royal   Governor  of   Massachusetts, 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 


205 


Looking  southward  on  that  familiar  highway  the  old 
Plymouth  road,  the  eye  glides  along  a  scene  hardly  less 
picturesque,  which  embraces  the  intervale  and  the  hills 
beyond.  Standing  on  Brush  Hill,  with  no  intervening 
obstruction  between  you  and  the  Blue  Hills,  there  lies 
spread  out  before  you  Nature  in  one  of  her  royal  moods,  a 
study  worthy  of  some  gifted  artist.  Passing  on  to  the 
south,  and  ascending  the  hills  themselves,  which  in  a  less 
modest  nomenclature  than  ours  would  be  classified  as 
mountains,  and  there,  on  the  summit,  lies  before  you  a 
magnificent  panorama  of  cities,  villages,  mountains,  valleys, 
rivers,  lakes,  the  ocean,  —  where  one  may  contemplate 
with  reverence  the  works  of  the  Creator,  the  intelligence 
of  man,  the  life  and  growth  of  society,  and  the  events 
of  history  which  have  transpired  in  successive  generations 
within  the  bounds  of  the  horizon. 

Nor  is  the  natural  beauty  of  this  township  confined  to 
such  favored  sites  as  these,  but  it  is  distributed  among  our 
farms  and  along  our  roads.  I  have  seen  the  artist  sitting 
by  our  longest  brook,  which  rises  in  the  Blue  Hills,  and, 
flowing  through  the  Hobart  woods,  falls  into  the  Nepon- 
set,  sketching  the  overhanging  branches,  the  moss-grown 
trees  and  flowering  meadows  by  its  side,  and  placing  on 
canvas  beauties  of  which  we  live  altogether  too  uncon- 
scious. Coming  at  the  close  of  day  from  the  railway 
station  to  my  home,  with  the  twin  churches  before  me 
and  the  Blue  Hills  in  the  background,  I  have  often  paused 
looking  westward  to  gaze  on  sunsets  as  finely  colored 
as  any  I  have  ever  seen  on  Italian  skies.  We  have, 
indeed,  villas  and  lawns  which  art  has  constructed  and 
laid  out,  but,  better  still,  we  have  retained  the  primitive 

sighed  in  exile  for  his  home  on  "  Unkity  Hill,"  the  Indian  name  for 
Milton  Hill  Hosmer's  "Life  of  Thomas  Hutchinson, "  pp.  315,  327, 
342,  343- 


206  THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

forest,  where  woodcock,  partridge,  quail,  and  rabbit  still 
linger;  we  have  highways  not  too  broad,  and  lined  with 
graceful  elms ;  we  have  still,  and  long  may  we  retain, 
that  freshness  of  Nature  which  makes  the  charm  of  Milton 
as  a  home  and  place  of  rest.  If  some  lover  of  Nature 
gifted  with  imagination  like  Wordsworth,  who  glorified 
with  sentiment  the  Lake  district  of  England  and  peopled 
it  with  ideal  forms,  shall  ever  be  born  or  come  to  live 
among  us,  he  will  find  all  about  him  food  for  his  contem- 
plative spirit  and  poetic  genius. 

It  has  been  customary  at  dedications  like  this  to  review 
the  history  of  the  town  from  its  settlement ;  but  I  decline 
a  task  which  at  our  second  centennial  anniversary  was  so 
well  performed  by  our  townsman,  Mr.  Robbins.  The 
chronicles  of  its  churches  have  been  written  by  two  of  its 
pastors  and  present  citizens,  —  the  Rev.  Dr.  Morison  and 
the  Rev.  Frederick  Frothingham,  both  of  whom  are  with 
us  this  evening.  May  we  not  also  hope  that  before 
long  we  shall  welcome  a  complete  history  of  the  town, 
full  of  accurate  narrative,  authentic  reminiscences,  choice 
incidents  of  biography,  and  pictures  of  its  life  in  different 
periods,  from  another  of  our  clergymen,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Teele, 
who  has  already  gathered  valuable  materials,  .and  whose 
recent  retirement  from  a  long  and  useful  pastorate  of 
twenty-five  years  leaves  him  an  opportunity  to  render 
this  important  service  to  the  community?1 

We  do  not  claim  for  our  town  any  extraordinary  annals. 
It  has  no  battle-fields ;  it  has  not,  like  one  of  its  neigh- 
bors, been  the  birthplace  and  burial-place  of  Presidents. 
It  boasts  no  remarkable  strides  in  population  or  material 
development.  Incorporated  by  the  act  of  May  7,  1662, 
it  was  the  fifty-first  town  established  ;  and,  three  having 
1  Mr.  Teele's  "  History  of  Milton  "  was  published  early  in  1888. 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 


207 


disappeared  by  annexation  to  Boston,  it  is  now  among 
the  towns  and  cities  of  this  Commonwealth  the  forty- 
eighth  in  age.  It  numbered  743  souls  in  1765;  1213  in 
1776;  1039  in  1790;  1143  in  1800;  1264  in  1810  ;  1502 
in  1820;  1576  in  1830;  1822  in  1840;  2241  in  1850; 
2669  in  1860;  2683  in  1870  (some  of  our  territory 
having  been  made  a  part  of  Hyde  Park  in  1868)  ;  and 
2738  in  1875. 

Our  countrymen  sometimes  lament  the  newness  of 
American  life,  and  covet  the  antiquity  of  older  nations. 
We  forget,  however,  how  venerable  some  of  our  institu- 
tions are.  The  municipal  history  of  this  town,  beginning 
with  1662  and  extending  along  a  line  of  two  hundred  and 
seventeen  years,  runs  parallel  with  the  most  marvellous 
epochs  of  modern  times.  When  it  began,  Louis  XIV., 
"  the  grand  monarch,"  as  he  is  called,  ruled  France,  —  a 
reign  which  brings  before  us  Mazarin  and  Colbert,  Tu- 
renne  and  Conde,  Bossuet,  Fenelon,  and  Pascal,  and  the  re- 
vocation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  In  England,  Charles  II. 
was  the  head  of  a  dissolute  court;  Sir  Henry  Vane,  once 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  was  on  his  way  to  the  scaffold  ; 
Milton  was  composing  in  blindness,  the  "  Paradise  Lost," 
and  Bunyan  was  writing  in  Bedford  jail  the  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress."  The  incorporation  of  our  town  was  but  thirty 
years  after  Gustavus  Adolphus  fell  at  Lutzen,  and  it  was 
ten  years  earlier  than  the  birth  of  Peter  the  Great,  who 
was  to  consolidate  the  great  empire  of  the  North,  and 
bring  Russia  into  the  family  of  European  states.  What 
afterwards  became  Prussia  was  then  but  a  parcel  of  elec- 
torates and  duchies.  The  Thirty  Years'  War  had  just 
closed  with  the  peace  of  Westphalia.  The  Ottoman 
power  was  still  threatening  Europe,  and  was  yet  to  be 
broken  before  the  gates  of  Vienna.  No  books  in  the 
English  tongue  and  now  in  general  use  had  then  been 


2O8  THE   TOWN   OF  MILTON. 

printed,  except  Shakespeare  and  Bacon  and  the  English 
Bible.  This  municipality  has,  in  different  generations,  wit- 
nessed a  procession  of  great  events,  —  the  growth  of  con- 
stitutional liberty  in  England  ;  a  succession  of  revolutions 
in  France,  ending  at  last,  let  us  hope,  in  a  permanent 
republic,  just  as  well  as  free;  the  creation  of  new  pow- 
ers, as  Prussia,  Greece,  Italy,  and  the  new  Germany ;  the 
American  colonies  passing  into  allied  States,  and  then 
to  a  sovereign  and  united  nation  ;  the  emancipation  of  the 
African  race  on  this  continent  and  of  the  serfs  of  Russia, 
both  in  a  single  decade,  —  manifold  triumphs  through  the 
world  in  art,  science,  civilization,  and  humanity.  Surely, 
if  there  is  a  charm  in  antiquity,  in  venerable  age,  in  a 
history  contemporary  with  that  of  the  world's  most  pro- 
gressive period,  our  town  with  its  remote  beginning  and 
its  continuous  life  may  claim  that  charm  for  itself. 

Our  town  has  been  conspicuous  for  the  good  sense  and 
solid  character  of  its  citizens,  and  in  some  epochs  for 
names  which  mankind  will  remember.  When  our  fathers 
contended  for  existence  against  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  her 
Captain  Wadsworth  fell  bravely  with  his  gallant  and  de- 
voted band  in  Sudbury,  and  in  a  graveyard  of  that  town 
is  a  monument  with  this  inscription:  "Captain  Samuel 
Wadsworth  of  Milton,  his  Lieutenant  Sharp  of  Brookline, 
and  twenty-six  other  soldiers  fighting  for  the  defence  of 
their  country  were  slain  by  the  Indian  enemy  and  lye 
buried  in  this  place."  The  Voses  and  Sumners  served 
their  country  with  honor  in  the  army  of  the  Revolution 
and  in  the  war  with  England  of  1812,  and  theirs  and  other 
names  of  our  citizens  are  among  the  recorded  heroisms 
of  our  Civil  War.  In  an  early  period  this  town  gave  a 
president  to  Harvard  College  in  the  person  of  Benjamin 
Wadsworth.  Some  of  its  citizens  have  been  identified 
with  the  civil  and  judicial  history  of  the  State.  The  town 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON.  209 

has  witnessed  within  its  limits  some  historic  scenes, the 

preaching  of  John  Eliot  and  George  Whitefield,  and  the 
passage  of  the  Suffolk  Resolves  in  the  house  of  Captain 
Daniel  Vose,  drawn  by  Joseph  Warren,  and  regarded  as 
the  earliest  organized  demonstration  for  independence  in 
the  colonies. 

There  has  been  a  continuity  in  the  life  of  this  town  rare 
in  municipal  history.  Growing  in  population  by  natural 
increase  rather  than  by  accessions  from  other  places,  there 
has  been  a  steady  flow  of  influence  and  character  from 
one  generation  to  another.  Eight  of  the  original  trustees, 
to  whom  in  1664  a  tract  of  land  was  conveyed  for  "  a 
meeting-house  and  other  ministerial  purposes,"  have 
always  since  had  and  still  have  descendants  in  the  town 
bearing  their  names,  and  in  some  instances  living  upon 
and  holding,  without  break  in  the  chain  of  title,  their  an- 
cestral acres,  —  the  Voses,  Wadsworths,  Tuckers,  Sum- 
ners,  Gullivers,  Babcocks,  Swifts,  and  Cranes.  It  has  a 
remarkable  record  for  longevity,  including  in  successive 
generations  an  unusual  number  of  inhabitants  who  have 
lived  to  fourscore  years,  and  even  passed  in  health  and 
vigor  far  beyond  that  limit.  The  long  service  of  many  of 
its  clergymen  signifies  its  conservative  and  steady-going 
character.  Five  active  pastorates  —  those  of  Peter  Tha- 
cher,  John  Taylor,  Nathaniel  Robbins,  Samuel  Gile,  and 
John  H.  Morison  —  span  a  period  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty-seven  years,  of  which  those  of  Thacher  and  Robbins 
were  each  nearly  half  a  century  in  duration.  Three  lives, 
always  identified  with  the  town,  connect  us  with  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Nathaniel  Robbins,  the 
third  minister  of  the  Milton  church,  lived  from  1726  to 
1795.  His  son  Edward  H.  Robbins,  an  early  lieutenant- 
governor  of  the  State,  lived  from  1758  to  1829;  and  but 
for  the  inclement  weather  of  this  evening,  we  should  have 

14 


210  THE  TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

had  with  us  next  in  the  line,  worthy  alike  of  sire  and 
grandsire,  the  Hon.  James  M.  Robbins,  who  at  the  age  of 
eighty-two  is  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  powers,  and 
active  for  the  public  good.  May  a  gracious  Providence 
spare  for  years  to  come  a  life  so  precious  in  itself,  so 
honored  in  the  generations  before  it. l 

The  tone  of  municipal  life  has  been  at  all  times  sensibly 
affected  by  the  superior  intelligence  of  leading  citizens. 
Fortunate  the  people  who  have  this  advantage !  thrice 
fortunate  the  people  who  value  and  profit  by  it !  The 
town  has  probably  counted  among  its  citizens,  at  different 
periods,  more  graduates  of  Harvard  College  than  any  one 
of  similar  population  in  the  State,  and  their  trained  intel- 
lects and  large  views  have  been  felt  at  all  periods  in  its 
social  life  and  public  action.  We  greet  this  evening,  as 
one  of  our  most  welcome  guests,  a  representative  of  the 
ancient  university,  Mr.  James  B.  Thayer,  Royall  professor 
at  the  Dane  Law  School, —  no  longer  of  us  as  a  citizen, 
but  always  of  us  as  a  friend,  —  whose  scholarly  tastes, 
neighborly  offices,  and  beneficent  activity  in  civic  duties 
remain  in  fresh  remembrance. 

There  is  another  feature  in  the  character  of  the  town 
which  deserves  mention.  A  kindly  spirit  of  association 
prevails  among  our  people,  with  no  sharp  divisions  into 
sects,  occupations,  and  family  groups.  Wealth  here  is 
not  supercilious  and  exclusive,  but  hospitable,  open- 
handed,  and  sympathetic.  There  is  little  of  poverty 
and  dependence,  but  a  general  condition  of  comfort. 
There  are  no  wide  estates  tilled  by  tenants,  but  more  than 
in  most  communities  each  man  is  the  owner  of  the  house 
he  lives  in.  As  the  result,  there  prevails  a  sense  of  self- 
respect  and  of  respect  for  others. 

In  political  controversies  the  vote  of  the  town  has  been 

1  Mr.  Robbins  died  November  2,  1885,  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine. 


THE   TOWN   OF  MILTON.  211 

steadily  for  freedom,  for  the  support  of  the  government 
and  the  honest  administration  of  state  affairs.  In  com- 
memoration of  the  ratification  of  Jay's  treaty,  by  which 
Washington  upheld  against  clamor  the  peace  of  the 
country,  an  arch  was  erected  over  the  bridge  at  the  Lower 
Mills,  at  the  instance  and  expense  of  Major  John  Lillie,1 
an  officer  of  the  army  of  the  Revolution,  then  a  citizen  of 
the  place,  which  bore  this  inscription:  "We  unite  in  de- 
fence of  our  Constitution  and  laws,"  —  a  resolution  to 
which  the  town  and,  'may  I  be  permitted  to  add,  his 
descendants  have  ever  since  been  loyal. 

The  town,  in  its  ordinary  proceedings,  has  been  noted 
for  prudence  and  deliberate  action.  Though  never  nig- 
gardly, and  meeting  cheerfully  all  necessary  outlays,  it 
has  rarely,  if  ever,  spent  money  foolishly,  and  it  kept  its 
head  level  in  the  flush  times  which  followed  the  Civil 
War.  This  wise  economy,  which  is  true  statesmanship 
alike  in  the  government  of  towns  and  of  commonwealths, 
has  enabled  us  without  any  pressure  or  inconvenience  to 
erect  this  tasteful  and  capacious  edifice,  and  to  pay  for  it  in 
four  yearly  instalments,  one  of  which  was  included  in  the 
tax  bills  you  have  recently  paid,  —  the  entire  rate  being 
only  seven  dollars  on  a  thousand.  Only  ten  of  the  three 
hundred  and  forty-four  towns  and  cities  have  this  year  a 
tax-rate  less  than  ours ;  and  until  a  loan  was  obtained  to 
pay  the  cost  of  this  building,  Milton  was  one  of  the  sixty- 
three  towns  in  the  State  absolutely  free  from  debt.  This 
exhibit  we  have  a  right  to  regard  with  satisfaction.  Nu- 
merous municipalities  in  other  States  are  now  bankrupt, 
or,  though  able  to  pay,  are  repudiating  their  obligations. 
In  our  own  State,  where  no  such  dishonor  has  yet  come, 
cities  and  towns  have  built  waterworks  costing  twice  what 
they  should,  opened  highways  for  the  benefit  of  specula- 
1  Maternal  graaidfather  of  Mr.  Pierce. 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON. 

tors,  or,  worse  yet,  plunged  into  railroad  schemes  which 
are  no  better  than  confiscation.  Weighed  down  with  taxa- 
tion, they  are  expelling  capital  from  their  limits,  and  are 
forcing  it  to  seek  protection  in  communities  which  are 
still  governed  by  maxims  of  prudence  and  justice.  Here- 
after, more  than  ever  before,  that  town  is  to  hold  its  own 
and  grow  in  strength  which  keeps  out  of  debt,  pays  as  it 
goes,  and  gives  assurance  that  persons  and  property  are 
secure  within  its  jurisdiction. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  to  the  performance  of  the 
civil  duties  and  functions  belonging  to  ordinary  times  or 
coming  only  in  great  exigencies  ;  to  the  elective  franchise, 
the  highest  right  and  the  highest  duty  of  the  citizen,  to 
be  exercised  and  performed  soberly,  justly,  and  with  a 
deep  sense  of  moral  responsibility,  —  to  all  the  uses  of 
municipal  government,  to  rational  amusements,  to  knowl- 
edge, to  patriotism,  to  liberty  and  law,  this  noble  structure 
we  now  dedicate,  full  of  hope  that  the  fidelity,  love  of 
order,  prudence,  and  public  spirit  which  distinguished  our 
fathers  shall  abide  evermore  with  their  posterity.  Enter- 
ing this  new  house,  we  enter  a  new  period  of  municipal 
history.  Let  us  begin  its  use  with  a  profound  sense  of 
our  obligations  as  neighbors,  as  fellow-townsmen,  as  citi- 
zens of  our  common  country.  Let  us  resolve,  that,  so  far 
as  in  us  lies,  our  votes  shall  be  for  justice,  honor,  integrity, 
and  the  common  good.  Let  these  walls  echo  only  to  the 
inspirations  of  a  pure  and  elevated  patriotism.  Here, 
amid  all  differences  of  opinion,  let  there  be  a  united  effort 
to  advance  the  morals  and  promote  the  welfare  of  this  and 
the  coming  generations.  Let  us  strive  for  higher  stan- 
dards of  civic  action,  for  nobler  ideals  in  conduct  and  life ; 
and  trusting  that  God  will  be  with  us,  as  He  was  with  our 
fathers,  let  us  hope  that  they  who  a  century  hence  shall 


THE   TOWN   OF   MILTON.  213 

unroll  the  records  of  our  time  may  find  in  us,  too,  some- 
thing worthy  of  imitation  and  gratitude. 


A  leader  of  the  Ohio  bar,  and  inheritor  of  the  name  of  his 
distinguished  ancestor,  bore  testimony  to  the  quality  of  Mr.  Pierce's 
address  in  the  following  letter :  — 

CINCINNATI.  March  i,  1879. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  Though  somewhat  tardy  in  doing  it,  I 
specially  desire  to  thank  you  for  your  address  in  opening  the  Town 
Hall  at  Milton.  I  read  it  to  Mrs.  King,  cut  it  out  of  the  "  Adver- 
tiser," and  have  placed  it  carefully  between  the  leaves  of  De 
Tocqueville's  chapter  on  the  New  England  town  government,  con- 
sidering it  by  all  odds  the  very  best  photograph  of  the  system 
which  it  has  been  my  pleasure  to  meet  in  all  my  reading. 

At  present,  I  think  there  is  no  point  in  statesmanship  so  im- 
portant or  critical  as  that  of  municipal  organization.  If  the  rot 
which  threatens  us  there  strikes  in,  that  will  be  the  end  of  the 
business ;  and  Byron's  couplet  is  going  to  be  the  inscription  over 
the  gates  of  the  republics  as  well  as  the  monarchies. 

Sincerely  yours, 

RUFUS  KING. 


214  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 


VIII. 

Mr.  PIERCE'S  address  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  before  the 
Alumni  of  Brown  University,  June  15,  1880,  attracted  public  atten- 
tion at  the  time  as  specially  adapted  to  promote  an  active  and 
sustained  civic  spirit  among  educated  young  men.  A  vote  of  the 
Alumni,  at  a  meeting  held  the  same  day,  directed  its  publication 
in  connection  with  a  poem  delivered  by  Rev.  Samuel  F.  Smith, 
D.  D.,  on  the  same  occasion.  At  the  Commencement  two  years 
later,  Brown  University  conferred  on  Mr.  Pierce  the  degree  of 
LL.D. 


THE  COLLEGE  GRADUATE:    HIS   PUBLIC  AND 
SOCIAL  DUTIES. 

THIS  is  the  festival  season  of  culture.  On  these  fa*ir 
days  of  June,  scholars  come  as  pilgrims  to  seats  of  learn- 
ing, and  youths  go  forth  from  them  to  assume  the  duties 
and  responsibilities  of  men.  Few  spectacles  in  human 
life  attract  sympathies  so  genuine  and  universal.  If  our 
hearts  are  rightly  attuned,  we  cannot  fail  to  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  occasions  in  which  worldliness  yields  to  primal 
instincts.  The  traveller  in  a  foreign  city  pauses  by  the 
wayside,  as  teachers  and  pupils  celebrate  some  holiday 
with  songs  and  banners,  or  children  in  white  array  go  to 
their  first  communion,  or  bride  and  bridegroom,  with  the 
loving  escort  of  kinsfolk  and  neighbors,  enter  the  cathe- 
dral to  receive  the  consecration  of  their  vows.  Though 
speaking  another  language  and  kneeling  at  other  altars, 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES. 


2I5 


they  are  for  the  time  of  his  kindred  and  family,  and  he 
blesses  them  with  a  stranger's  benediction. 

In  a  like  scene,  to  which  all  hearts  are  responsive,  we 
have  met  again  to  participate.  Nearly  three-score  young 
men,  equipped  for  active  life,  go  forth  from  this  Univer- 
sity to  enter  on  the  work  which  God  shall  appoint  unto 
each  to  do.  Father,  mother,  sister,  brother,  are  to  rejoice 
in  the  growing  promise  of  one  on  whom  their  hope  has 
centred.  The  ingenuous  youth  himself  is  to  see  visions 
of  the  future  as  it  offers  duties,  honors,  rewards.  We  as 
spectators,  in  sober  thought,  shall  contemplate  the  possi- 
bilities of  each  as  he  comes  upon  this  platform  where  once 
we  have  stood,  and  shall  ask  what  he  will  do  with  the 
training,  the  acquirements,  and  the  inspiration  of  his 
college  life? 

I  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  stand  before  you  to-day, 
looking  into  the  faces  of  early  companions;  in  a  church1 
where  holy  men  no  longer  in  mortal  flesh,  my  guides  and 
friends,  —  Granger,  Wayland,  Caswell,  —  still  speak  in 
their  remembered  ministrations ;  in  a  city  beautiful  for 
situation,  to  which  I  am  bound  by  ties  far  tenderer  than 
those  of  any  academic  fellowship ;  and,  what  most  con- 
cerns the  hour,  in  the  presence  of  young  men  who  are 
passing  from  the  seclusion  of  the  college  to  the  activities 
of  the  world.  You  will  not  be  vexed  this  morning  with 
any  old  question  of  literature  or  history,  or  with  any 
speculations  of  science ;  but  the  occasion  in  which  we 
join,  and  the  period  in  which  we  live,  shall  suggest  my 
theme,  —  The  Public  and  Social  Duties  of  the  College 
Graduate. 

It  would  add  to  the  value  of  our  statistical  tables  if  they 
informed  us  with  substantial  accuracy  how  many  students 
i  The  First  Baptist  Church. 


2l6  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

are  now  in  institutions  which  may  fairly  be  called  "  colle- 
ges "  according  to  the  American  standard,  and  how  many 
receive  degrees  from  them  each  year;  what  is  the  total 
number  of  such  graduates  in  the  country,  and  how  they 
are  distributed  among  the  various  professions.  But  how- 
ever unsatisfactory  the  attainable  figures  may  be,  all  will 
agree  that  the  college  graduates  living  at  any  period  ought 
to  be  a  prodigious  force  in  the  direction  of  public  opinion. 
Without  refining  upon  the  purpose  of  the  college  curri- 
culum, it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  is  arranged  primarily  for 
the  discipline  of  the  whole  man,  —  his  intellectual  and 
moral  nature ;  and,  secondarily,  for  the  acquisition  of  the 
elements  of  knowledge  in  as  many  departments  as  time 
permits,  so  that  thereafter,  by  himself  or  under  specialists, 
the  student  may  pursue  any  one  according  to  his  taste  and 
aptitude.  It  puts  in  complete  working  order  the  noblest 
machine  in  the  universe,  and  starts  it  off  to  become  the 
greatest  of  dynamic  agencies  for  good  or  for  evil.  With 
it  ought  to  come  a  clear  perception  of  truth  in  the  various 
human  relations,  and  a  facility  for  impressing  that  truth 
on  others.  The  studies  are  not  confined  to  one  specialty 
or  group,  but  are  comprehensive.  They  deal  with  the 
intellectual  and  moral  nature,  with  the  best  thoughts  of 
antiquity,  with  the  material  world,  with  what  is  taught  by 
science  in  its  manifold  divisions,  and  with  what  has  tran- 
spired in  human  history.  If  one  study  followed  ex- 
clusively tends  to  disturb  a  normal  development,  this 
curriculum,  so  broad  and  inclusive,  awakens  the  whole 
soul,  and  teaches  truth  not  as  an  absolute  entity  alone, 
but  in  its  many  relations.  This  is  what  Milton  describes 
when  he  says :  "  I  call,  therefore,  a  complete  and  gener- 
ous education  that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly, 
skilfully,  and  magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  private 
and  public,  of  peace  and  war." 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  21 J 

The  College  does  more  than  train  faculties  and  teach 
elements.  This  may  be  done  under  private  tutorship  or 
in  a  lecture-room,  without  association  among  students, 
or  between  students  and  professors.  The  College  is  a 
society.  It  is  a  society  founded  for  a  noble  purpose,  rich 
in  the  means  of  culture,  hallowed  by  the  devotion  of  its 
benefactors,  glorious  often  by  what  it  has  done  for  man- 
kind. As  such  a  society,  it  forms,  directs,  and  inspires 
its  successive  generations  of  students. 

The  college  student  is  for  four  years  set  apart  from 
mankind.  He  is  here  at  a  period  when  the  soul  is  sensi- 
tive to  all  impressions,  when  the  character  takes  its 
direction.  He  comes  as  a  boy :  he  leaves  as  a  man.  The 
world  he  enters  is  unlike  that  which  for  a  time  has  closed 
to  him.  They  have  points  of  comparison,  but  their  points 
of  contrast  are  many  and  striking.  Outside  is  the  con- 
flict of  material  interests,  the  classification  of  men  with 
reference  to  wealth  or  worldly  success,  the  subordination 
of  the  better  impulses  to  the  lower,  the  pressure  of  ex- 
pediency against  duty,  the  assertion  and  practice  of  a 
conventional  morality  in  politics  and  trade  which  sneers 
at  the  highest  rectitude  as  sentimental  and  pharisaic. 
There,  too,  are  the  fierce  competitions  for  place,  the  war- 
cries  of  parties  which  no  longer  signify  living  issues,  and 
the  fever  of  speculation,  with  its  curious  periodicity  of 
return. 

From  all  this  the  college  student  is  withdrawn.  He  is, 
indeed,  born  and  remains  with  like  passions  as  the  rest  of 
us ;  but  his  time  has  not  yet  come.  If  the  noise  without 
reaches  him,  he  is  undisturbed,  for  he  listens  rather  to 
the  calm  voices  of  teachers  and  books.  If  from  his 
chamber  window  he  has  a  glimpse  of  human  activities,  he 
sees  them,  only  as  spectator  and  critic.  If  public  journals 
and  partisans  condone  corruption  and  duplicity  in  high 


2i8  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

places,  or  are  subservient  to  clamor,  or  are  always  din- 
ning in  our  ears  that  it  is  the  highest  duty  of  a  citizen  to 
sustain  party  nominations  however  objectionable,  he  turns 
for  instruction  to  moralists  like  Wayland,  and  to  publi- 
cists like  Lieber  and  Woolsey.  Whatever  outlook  he  may 
have,  he  is  in  personal  interest  and  activity  isolated  from 
the  world  beyond.  His  stand  is  at  a  point  where  all  finer 
influences  meet.  He  is  of  a  commonwealth  typical  in 
some  respects  of  the  outer  life,  but  separate  and  apart 
from  it.  He  lives  in  a  community  where  knowledge  is 
the  pursuit  of  all ;  where  the  atmosphere  is  charged  with 
an  inspiring  and  vitalizing  force;  where  rank  among  his 
fellows  depends  not  on  birth  or  wealth,  but  on  generosity, 
true  manliness,  and  achievements  of  intellectual  power; 
where  pretension  and  genuine  character  are  readily  and 
almost  always  justly  assorted ;  where  his  immediate  ex- 
emplars are  students  already  distinguished  by  promise 
and  attainment,  and  professors  of  finished  culture  and 
unworldly  lives.  He  holds  converse  all  the  while  with 
the  great  masters  of  thought  in  every  age,  and  in  their 
presence  discerns  what  is  transient  and  what  is  enduring. 
With  each  visit  to  the  library,  he  sees  at  every  turn  of  the 
eye  what  names  live  and  what  soon  perish.  In  the  class- 
room and  in  the  solitude  of  his  study  he  tests  the  relations 
of  things  by  eternal  standards,  and  there  learns  from  con- 
stant iteration  and  reflection  the  supreme  value  of  the 
individual  soul,  —  surviving  societies,  institutions,  gov- 
ernments ;  its  right  of  private  judgment  superior  to  the 
authority  of  Church  and  State ;  its  perpetual  obligations 
to  truth  and  duty,  with  no  exceptions  for  exigencies  and 
crises  personal  or  public.  Moral  philosophy  teaches  the 
supremacy  of  conscience ;  mental  philosophy  affirms  the 
right  to  think  for  one's  self,  as  the  foundation  of  intellect- 
ual life;  and  history  teaches  how  posterity  reserves  its 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL  DUTIES.  2 19 

garlands  for  those  only  who  maintained  in  lives  of  thought 
or  action  the  courage  of  their  convictions.  The  College, 
then,  in  all  her  nurture,  —  from  the  hour  when  she  calls 
him  to  herself,  to  the  hour  when  she  bids  him  go  forth 
to  his  work, —  helps  the  youth  to  see  truth  as  it  is,  to  live 
it  among  men,  and  to  maintain  a  vigorous  personality  in 
the  strong  currents  of  society. 

This  individuality,  which  is  essential  to  manhood  and 
to  all  good  work  in  the  world,  is  not  to  be  confounded 
with  self-assertion,  irreverence,  or  eccentricity,  —  opposite 
vices  which  college  discipline  tends  to  counteract.  The 
true  scholar  is  in  a  sense  the  citizen  of  all  nations,  the 
contemporary  of  all  ages.  He  has  an  open  ear  alike  for 
the  according  voices  of  his  own  generation  and  for  the 
wisdom  of  the  past.  In  his  own  judgments  he  will  take 
account  of  the  consensus  of  living  men,  and  respect  custom 
and  tradition. 

"  Well  speed  thy  mission,  bold  Iconoclast! 
Yet  all  unworthy  of  its  trust  thou  art, 
If  with  dry  eye  and  cold,  unloving  heart, 
Thou  tread'st  the  solemn  Pantheon  of  the  Past, 
By  the  great  Future's  dazzling  hope  made  blind 
To  all  the  beauty,  power,  and  truth  behind." 

What  place,  then,  is  so  adapted  as  the  College  to  form 
and  solidify  a  manly  character,  to  promote  fearless  inquiry 
and  independent  conviction,  to  encourage  the  pursuit  of 
lofty  ideals,  to  put  in  true  perspective  all  the  prizes  of 
ambition?  Where  else  shall  we  send  the  youth  of  our 
country  with  equal  hope  that  they  will  come  forth  to 
be  contented  with  moderate  gains  in  the  midst  of  specu- 
lation; to  live  frugally  in  the  midst  of  extravagance;  to 
assert  the  right  of  private  judgment  against  authority; 
to  carry  a  clear  head  and  a  strong  will  in  all  periods  of 


220  THE  COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

frenzy  and  delusion;  and  to  plant  a  firm  foot  against 
organized  bodies  which  would  usurp  individual  responsi- 
bility? I  answer  with  confidence,  that  there  is  no  such 
school  of  manhood  as  the  College.  Thousands  may  fail 
to  learn  the  lesson,  to  realize  the  ideal ;  but  they,  not  the 
College,  are  at  fault.  So  true  is  it,  as  Wordsworth  says, 
that  it  is  — 

"...  the  most  difficult  of  tasks  to  keep 
Heights  which  the  soul  is  competent  to  gain." 

Nor  does  the  power  of,  the  College  over  us  end  when 
our   names  drop  from  its  annual   catalogue.     Each   one 

remains  accountable  to  teachers  and  classmates  and  con- 

» 

temporary  students,  and  he  never  can  escape  from  their 
moral  jurisdiction.  Can  any  one  of  that  famous  class  of 
1829  at  Cambridge,  which  enrolls  men  pre-eminent  in 
science,  literature,  jurisprudence,  and  theology,  —  among 
them  the  author  of  "  My  country,  't  is  of  thee," 1  who 
to-day  serves  us  as  poet,  —  ever  emancipate  himself  from 
the  dominion  of  such  a  fellowship?  Can  a  pupil  of  Way- 
land,  Hopkins,  Porter,  Robinson,  when  meditating  an  act 
of  meanness  or  dishonor,  fail  to  hear  the  upbraiding  voice 
of  the  good  president,  living  or  dead,  at  whose  feet  he  was 
nurtured?  Can  I,  when  a  choice  of  conduct  is  before  me, 
—  one  offering  the  rewards  of  duty,  and  the  other  worldly 
temptations,  —  be  blind  to  the  presence  of  my  college 
teachers,  four  of  whom  survive,2  —  three  living  in  Provi- 
dence, and  one,  my  cherished  friend  from  college  days, 
the  Latin  professor,  who  is  still  at  his  ancient  post?  And 
shall  I  not  then  also  see  about  me,  as  witnesses  and 
judges,  contemporary  students  of  my  own  and  other 
classes,  —  my  classmate  and  chum,3  who,  after  faithful  ser- 

1  Rev.  S.  F.  Smith,  D.  D. 

2  Professors  Chace,  Gammell,  Lincoln,  Boise.      8  Rev.  James  O.  Murray. 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND    SOCIAL   DUTIES.  221 

vice  in  a  metropolitan  pulpit,  now  holds  a  chair  at  Prince- 
ton ;  an  alumnus  of  an  earlier  class,1  now  a  professor  at 
Yale,  whose  treatment  of  Christian  history  at  its  beginning 
and  in  later  times  has  done  so  much  to  establish  an  intel- 
ligent faith  ;  an  alumnus  of  a  later  class, 2  distinguished  by 
his  culture  and  historical  studies,  now  the  Professor  of 
History  in  this  college;  two  members  of  another  class,  — 
one  3  the  President  of  Michigan  University,  who  has  re- 
cently been  appointed  the  chief  of  an  embassy  to  China, 
sent  to  adjust  the  relation  of  that  Oriental  Power  with 
Western  civilization  ;  and  the  other,4  by  whose  imme- 
diate invitation  I  am  here  to-day,  —  a  civilian  honored  for 
many  years  with  an  important  trust  from  the  national 
government,  and  a  soldier  who  signalized  his  patriot- 
ism on  fields  of  battle,  and  whose  person  bears  the 
perpetual  seal  of  his  heroism  amid  the  blazing  columns 
of  Wauhatchie? 

Will  it  be  said  that  I  have  given  an  ideal  picture  of  what 
the  College  ought  to  do  for  a  man,  rather  than  a  state- 
ment of  what  it  does?  I  answer,  No!  Wherever  public 
spirit,  loyalty  to  conviction,  resistance  to  clamor,  perse- 
verance in  good  causes  amid  discouragements,  the  patient 
endurance  of  hardships,  and  courage  without  fear  of  death 
have  been  manifested,  there  the  college  graduate  has 
been  conspicuous.  You  will  find  him  at  the  missionary 
station  most  remote  from  civilization,  careless  of  discom- 
forts, facing  even  martyrdom,  —  as  witness  the  career  of 
John  Coleridge  Patteson,  a  student  and  fellow  at  Oxford, 
uniting  in  his  blood  and  name  two  families  distinguished 
in  the  judicial  history  of  England.  In  our  Civil  War  no 
class  gave  a  readier  response  to  the  summons  of  patriot- 
ism than  college  men ;  none  were  more  quick  to  enroll 

1  Rev.  George  P.  Fisher.  8  Hon.  James  B.  Angell. 

2  Rev.  J.  Lewis  Diman.  4  Gen  A.  B.  Underwood. 


222  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

themselves  in  the  military  service  than  the  students  and 
younger  members  of  the  alumni.  According  to  statistics 
collected  with  care,  their  proportionate  contribution  was 
larger  than  that  made  by  the  public  generally.  The  New 
England  colleges  sent  nearly  a  quarter  of  their  students 
and  graduates  of  military  age  into  the  service.  In  some 
colleges  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  West  the  Commence- 
ment was  given  up,  the  whole  graduating  class  having 
volunteered.  Oberlin  is  said  to  have  sent  seven  hundred 
of  her  students  and  alumni  to  the  field,  of  whom  one 
hundred  gave  their  lives. 

But  what  the  college  men  did  for  their  country  in  that 
hour  of  peril  cannot  be  measured  by  numbers  alone. 
The  example  of  each  was  in  itself  a  power,  a  reinforce- 
ment. A  nation  is  safe  when  its  highest  and  best  citizens 
are  foremost  in  self-abnegation.  Who  could  look  on  their 
manly  forms,  often  more  beautiful  than  that  which  ancient 
art  chiselled  in  the  Antinous,  their  eyes  beaming  with 
intelligence  and  lofty  spirit;  who  could  see  them  leaving 
homes  of  refinement  and  careers  just  opening  before  them, 
to  undergo  the  hardships  of  camp  and  march,  to  suffer 
weary  months  in  hospitals  and  die  on  battlefields,  —  who 
could  behold  that  spectacle,  and  not  feel  assured  that  all 
would  be  well  with  a  country  whose  educated  youth  were 
such  as  these?  Where  in  ancient  or  modern  times  have 
there  been  sublimer  scenes  than  were  witnessed,  after  the 
war,  on  commemorative  occasions  at  our  colleges,  when  — 
amid  battle-flags  and  trophies  and  shields  bearing  the 
names  of  the  fallen  —  scarred  veterans  were  received,  not 
with  a  Roman,  but  with  a  Christian  triumph?  Is  there 
in  our  own  or  any  land  a  more  impressive  structure 
.than  the  Memorial  Hall  at  Cambridge,  on  whose  walls 
Harvard  has  carved  with  classic  tributes  the  names  of  her 
patriot  dead  ?  Where  in  ages  to  come  shall  mankind  turn 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  223 

for  more  inspiring  examples  than  are  found  in  the  vol- 
umes in  which  the  colleges  have  preserved  with  loving 
care  the  heroism  of  their  sons?  If  at  any  time  it  shall  be 
said  that  culture  alienates  from  common  interests  and 
sympathies ;  that  the  College,  while  it  drills  the  intellect 
and  gives  an  aesthetic  direction  to  the  faculties,  fails  to 
ennoble  character,  —  our  Civil  War,  with  its  histories,  its 
biographies,  and  its  monuments,  will  be  a  final  answer. 

If  the  College  has  done  less  than  it  should  have  for  the 
improvement  of  American  politics,  it  has  in  some  emi- 
nent examples  shown  what  it  can  accomplish  in  that 
direction.  The  active  participation,  within  the  last  few 
years,  of  young  men,  many  of  them  recent  graduates  of 
colleges,  in  the  movement  to  purify  and  improve  civil 
administration,  and  to  test  public  men  by  severer  stand- 
ards than  before,  is  the  most  hopeful  sign  of  contempo- 
rary politics.  As  typical  of  this  class  I  mention  the  late 
Henry  Armitt  Brown,  of  Philadelphia,  whose  beautiful 
life  and  character  Professor  Hoppin  has  put  in  a  volume 
destined,  I  trust,  to  assist  in  moulding  generations  of  young 
men.  A  student  at  Yale,  he  was  a  true  collegian,  fair  in 
scholarship,  a  diligent  reader,  preserving  his  purity,  active 
in  college  sports,  always  foremost  in  song,  poem,  and 
speech.  Qualifying' himself  for  the  bar,  and  enriching 
his  culture  with  foreign  travel,  he  entered  on  active  life 
with  a  serious  purpose.  He  cultivated  the  art  of  public 
speaking,  and  pursued  the  studies  which  are  combined  in 
all  finished  statesmen,  —  history,  the  classics,  the  master- 
pieces of  great  orators,  public  law,  political  economy,  and 
the  industrial  and  social  questions  of  the  time.  The  Civil 
War  and  the  period  of  reconstruction  had  passed  when  he 
took  his  place  on  the  platform,  but  he  found  field  enough 
for  his  powers.  He  assailed  corruption  in  municipal  gov- 
ernment, and  entered  actively  into  political  campaigns,  — 


224  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

addressing  immense  audiences,  pleading  always  for  higher 
policies  in  finance  and  civil  administration.  He  came  to 
the  platform  at  the  centennial  epoch,  and  in  orations  upon 
our  early  and  Revolutionary  history  he  was  accurate  in 
details,  picturesque  in  narrative,  elevating  in  tone,  earnest 
in  purpose.  Compare  him  with  the  public  men  who  now 
hold,  or  for  many  years  have  held,  the  foremost  places 
in  his  State,  —  and  it  is  refreshing  to  see  what  this  gifted 
young  man,  simply  as  a  citizen,  had  accomplished  at 
the  age  of  thirty-three. 

The  training  of  the  College  imposes  duties  various  and 
comprehensive.  Culture  must  not  end  in  itself;  if  it  does, 
it  becomes  that  "fugitive  and  cloistered  virtue"  which 
Milton  refused  to  praise.  In  order  to  deserve  divine  ap- 
proval and  win  human  favor,  it  must  not  live  apart  from 
men,  contemplating  its  own  beauty  and  perfection.  It 
must  diffuse  "  sweetness  and  light "  as  well  as  have  them. 
The  scholar's  sphere  will  always  be  larger  than  himself, 
his  family,  and  his  business.  He  is  a  patriot;  and  he  will 
strive  to  purify  public  life,  to  ennoble  the  national  spirit. 
He  is  a  townsman ;  and  he  will  take  part  in  efforts 
to  promote  public  education  and  health,  honesty  and 
economy  in  municipal  administration;  and  he  will  not 
think  it  beneath  his  dignity  to  serve  in  any  official  capa- 
city, —  selectman,  overseer  of  the  poor,  or  member  of  the 
school  committee.  He  is  a  neighbor;  and  he  will  with- 
out pretension  diffuse  about  him  by  qxample  and  word 
the  spirit  and  knowledge  with  which  the  College  has  en- 
dowed him.  He  will  take  time  for  conversation,  for  per- 
sonal intercourse,  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men. 
The  difference  between  communities  as  places  in  which 
to  live  and  to  hold  real  estate  depends  often  not  so  much 
on  a  fortunate  site  and  facilities  of  communication,  as  upon 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  22$ 

the  quality  of  the  prominent  citizens  who  give  the  tone  to 
its  civic  life. 

I  venture  in  this  presence  to  suggest  —  what  may  seem 
heresy  to  some — that  there  is  a  tendency  in  our  country 
to  overvalue  what  is  called  "  higher  education,"  at  least 
as  compared  with  certain  homely  virtues  on  which  the 
family  and  society  depend,  —  industry,  contentment,  fix- 
edness in  home  and  pursuit.  The  College  will  have  a 
closer  connection  with  the  world,  and  will  have  a  greater 
power  over  men  when  it  ceases  to  be  regarded  chiefly  as 
a  preparatory  school  for  what  are  called  the  learned  pro- 
fessions. When  its  graduates  are  distributed  among  farm- 
ers, tradesmen,  and  mechanics,  they  will  no  longer  appear 
to  the  generality  as  a  sedentary  class,  reposing  under 
grateful  shades  while  the  multitudes  are  toiling  in  the 
heat ;  visionary  while  all  others  are  practical,  —  a  privi- 
leged body  placed  above  the  common  lot.  It  is  an  au- 
spicious sign  that  the  stream  which  flows  from  the  College 
is  now  spreading  fertility  into  new  fields.  The  alumnus 
is  not  only  a  minister,  lawyer,  physician,  teacher,  —  he  is 
also  a  civil  engineer,  manufacturer,  merchant,  farmer, 
artisan.  Among  the  founders  of  a  new  town  in  Colorado 
a  few  years  ago  were  twenty  college  men.  A  gentleman 
once  a  professor  of  this  college,  and  afterwards  the  mana- 
ger of  a  large  mining  establishment  in  that  State,  became 
by  his  public  spirit  its  first  citizen,  and  then  its  representa- 
tive in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.1 

Our  high  schools  are  multiplying  the  number  of  young 
men  and  women  who  turn  from  farm,  mechanical,  and 
domestic  work,  and  apply  for  employment  as  clerks  and 
scriveners.  The  trained  nurse,  how  hard  to  find !  but 
copyists,  what  legions  of  them  of  both  sexes  are  always 
waiting  to  serve  you !  Even  our  reform-schools  press 

i  Hon.  N.  P.  Hill 
15 


226  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

their  inmates  to  a  point  of  intellectual  excitement  so  far 
above  their  moral  development  that  upon  their  discharge 
they  treat  as  beneath  them  farm  or  domestic  drudgery. 
This  tendency  is  more  marked  with  us  than  in  any  other 
country.  It  exists,  however,  elsewhere, —  as  in  Greece, 
where  the  University  is  regarded  by  wise  observers  as  an 
obstacle  to  material  progress,  because  it  results  in  a  dearth 
of  men  fitted  for  surveying,  mining,  road-making,  bridge- 
building,  and  farming;  while  there  is  a  superfluous  number 
of  lawyers,  doctors,  and  clerks,  who,  having  no  chance  of 
a  career  in  those  callings,  become  idle,  restless  agitators. 
Are  not  the  leaders  in  our  educational  movements  respon- 
sible in  some  measure  for  that  disgust  with  manual  labor, 
for  that  mischievous  notion  that  it  is  a  misfortune,  even  a 
dishonor,  to  have  to  work  for  one's  living  on  the  farm,  in 
the  factory,  or  in  domestic  service,  which  underlie  the 
dangerous  movements  of  our  time,  and  finally  assail  social 
order, — as  in  the  municipal  elections  of  San  Francisco 
and  the  riots  of  Pittsburg?  That  civilization  is  not  healthy 
which  divorces  the  training  of  the  intellect  from  the  labor 
of  the  hands ;  and  that  personal  culture  is  defective  in 
which  these  cunning  fingers,  these  powerful  muscles,  these 
stalwart  limbs  are  left  altogether  unexercised  in  productive 
industry.  At  least  as  a  recreation,  manual  labor  helps  to 
maintain  the  tone  of  the  intellectual  life,  as  eminent  exam- 
ples bear  witness.  Some  of  us  remember  Dr.  Wayland, 
hoe  in  hand,  crossing  the  college  yard  of  a  summer  morn- 
ing to  work  in  his  garden,  near  where  the  Memorial  Hall 
now  stands ;  and  the  present  British  Prime  Minister 1  is 
said  to  be  the  best  woodchopper  in  the  three  kingdoms. 

The  proportion    of  graduates  whose  inherited  fortunes 
place   them   above   the    necessity   of  relying   upon  their 
earnings  for  support  has  increased  with  the  growing  wealth 
1  Mr.  Gladstone. 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES. 


227 


of  the  country.  It  is  not  well  for  such  to  compete  for 
clients  and  patrons  in  professions  already  overcrowded ; 
but  nevertheless  they  owe  a  large  duty  to  society.  They 
ought  not  to  lead,  as  too  many  of  them  do,  aimless  lives, 
keeping  apart  from  men,  frequenting  clubs,  travelling  in 
Europe,  lounging  at  watering-places,  or,  at  the  best,  ama- 
teuring  in  art  or  literature.  As  Lord  Bacon  has  nobly 
said,  "  In  the  theatre  of  human  life  it  is  only  for  God  and 
angels  to  be  spectators."  Society  has  many  offices  of 
beneficence  which  should  be  filled  by  men  instructed  in 
the  best  knowledge  of  their  time,  and  placed  by  excep- 
tional circumstances  above  the  temptations  which  beset  a 
struggling  life.  There  is  a  vast  amount  of  unremunerative 
work  to  be  done, — -for  the  relief  of  pauperism,  the  care 
of  the  public  health,  the  support  of  education,  the  work- 
ing of  municipal  government,  the  management  of  prisons 
and  hospitals,  the  administration  of  charities  and  savings- 
banks,  the  protection  of  the  Indian,  the  freedman,  and 
the  emigrant;  but  when  such  honorable  though  gratui- 
tous service  is  called  for,  it  is  too  often  declined  by  per- 
sons of  elegant  leisure,  and  finally  falls  upon  more  earnest 
men,  already  overworked  in  their  professions.  Noblesse 
oblige  applies  to  all  fortunate  classes;  and  culture  com- 
bined with  wealth  ought  to  do  in  a  republic  what  it  has 
been  claimed  aristocracy  has  done  as  a  privileged  order. 

Here,  then,  in  the  spheres  I  have  named,  the  way  opens 
for  educated  men  of  wealth  to  careers  of  usefulness  and 
honor.  The  transition  from  such  beneficent  service  to 
public  life  is  natural;  but  what  if  it  does  not  take  place? 
The  best  public  work  of  our  day  is  done  outside  legisla- 
tive bodies, — in  thoughtful  discussions  by  specialists,  and 
by  charitable,  business,  and  scientific  commissions,  which 
mature  conclusions  and  frame  statutes.  Lord  Brougham 


228  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

in  his  final  estimate  of  Canning  mentions  as  his  greatest 
defect  that  he  had  reasoned  himself  into  the  belief,  which 
he  was  wont  to  profess,  that  no  man  can  serve  his  country 
with  effect  out  of  office,  —  as  if  there  were  no  public,  no 
forum,  no  press,  —  the  most  pernicious  notion  which,  in 
Brougham's  opinion,  ever  entered  into  the  mind  of  a  public 
man. 

Educated  men  sometimes  complain  that  a  political 
career  in  this  country  is  closed  to  a  gentleman,  and  open 
only  to  men  of  coarse  and  pushing  energy.  If  there  be 
anything  in  this,  they  who  complain  are  often  in  a  measure 
responsible  for  the  exclusion.  No  man  has  a  right  to 
expect  the  confidence  and  favor  of  constituencies  until  he 
has  shown  capacity  for  affairs  and  an  active  interest  in  the 
public  welfare.  An  English  writer,  Mr.  Frederic  Harri- 
son, has  said  that  "  the  active  exercise  of  politics  requires 
common-sense,  sympathy,  trust,  resolution,  and  enthusi- 
asm, —  qualities  which  your  man  of  culture  has  carefully 
rooted  up,  lest  they  damage  the  delicacy  of  his  critical 
olfactories." 

Our  educated  men,  who  are  placed  above  the  necessity 
of  constant  service  in  a  profession,  may  learn  a  lesson 
from  English  history.  How  is  it  that  the  English  nobility 
has  survived  the  wreck  which  has  befallen  similar  orders 
elsewhere  in  Europe,  so  that  it  continues  to  furnish  popu- 
lar statesmen,  and  no  candidate  for  the  House  of  Com- 
mons so  attracts  constituencies  as  the  son  of  a  peer?  It 
is  because  at  all  periods  many  of  them  have  been  distin- 
guished by  beneficent  activities.  They  have  not  been 
idlers ;  they  have  written  histories,  translated  the  classics, 
cultivated  science,  trained  themselves  in  the  art  of  public 
speaking,  led  in  movements  for  moral  and  physical  ame- 
lioration, and  have  in  some  measure  preserved  the  best 
idea  of  feudalism,  —  the  duty  which  superior  privilege 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL  DUTIES.  229 

owes  to  inferior  fortune.  They  perform  common  labors, 
fill  important  trusts,  and  administer  charities  without  com- 
pensation ;  they  are  represented  in  every  unpaid  parlia- 
mentary or  social  investigation,  and  sit  in  local  tribunals 
without  salary  or  fees.  Lord  Wharncliffe,  grandfather  of 
the  present  peer,  presided  for  more  than  thirty  years  at 
the  Quarter  Sessions  in  Sheffield,  discharging  the  duty 
gratuitously  and  in  a  manner  to  distinguish  himself  among 
English  magistrates.  How  many  wealthy  graduates  of 
American  colleges  would  be  willing  to  serve  without  com- 
pensation as  justices  of  the  peace  and  police  judges? 

The  relation  of  the  college  graduate  to  politics  presses 
upon  our  attention  to-day.  Literary  men  have  too  much 
the  habit  of  treating  political  duty  in  the  spirit  of  triflers, 
and  they  have  often  only  a  smile,  if  not  a  sneer,  for  others 
who  busy  themselves  to  save  the  State  from  a  disastrous 
policy  or  from  unworthy  public  men.  But  can  any  con- 
duct be  more  irrational?  Politics  is  the  science  of  gov- 
ernment ;  it  relates  in  one  way  or  another  to  all  that 
concerns  organized  society.  And  can  there  be  any  nobler 
pursuit?  It  is  the  theme  and  title  of  a  treatise  by  Aris- 
totle, who  ruled  philosophy  for  eighteen  centuries,  and 
who  did  not  think  the  subject  unworthy  of  his  thought. 
Mr.  Gladstone  has  been  a  politician  for  fifty  years,  and 
where  will  you  find  a  finer  type  of  manhood  than  in  him? 
You  will  indeed  meet  with  ignoble  passions  in  political 
parties ;  but  you  will  meet  with  these  in  all  human  activi- 
ties, even  in  religious  movements.  However  repelling 
some  aspects  of  contemporary  politics  may  be,  the  good 
citizen  is  bound  to  do  his  best  to  improve  them ;  and  the 
ampler  his  training  and  opportunities,  the  more  peremp- 
tory is  this  obligation. 

The  college  graduate  should  in  his  political  action  main- 


230  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

tain  the  manly  spirit  which  is  the  natural  growth  of  his 
training;  and  this  quality  was  never  so  much  needed  as 
now  in  American  politics.  The  existence  of  political 
parties  and  the  divisions  of  citizens  among  them  accord- 
ing to  their  opinions,  interests,  traditions,  or  temperament, 
seem  inseparable  from  a  free  commonwealth.  Mr.  Burke, 
in  his  "  Thoughts  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discon- 
tents," has  stated  with  his  accustomed  force  the  duty  of 
political  association,  and  the  unhappy  and  even  unpatri- 
otic position  of  "  detached  "  gentlemen  who  hold  them- 
selves aloof  from  it.  The  duty  of  good  men  to  associate 
when  the  bad  combine ;  the  necessity  of  organization  for 
promoting  any  policy  in  government;  the  impotence  of 
men  who  cultivate  an  austere  individuality,  —  all  this  may 
be  admitted.  Some  mode  also  for  collecting  the  general 
sense  of  voters  of  the  same  party  for  the  purpose  of 
concert  in  the  support  of  candidates  by  means  of  a 
preliminary  conference  or  expressions  of  opinion,  seems 
convenient  and  reasonable. 

There  are,  however,  existing  conditions  in  American 
politics  which  require  the  citizen  to  watch  jealously  the 
limitations  of  party  allegiance.  A  machine  has  been 
created,  beginning  with  the  primary  meeting  and  ascend- 
ing to  State  and  national  organizations,  which  becomes  at 
times  an  intolerable  tyranny.  Adopting  the  scandalous 
war-cry,  "  To  the  victors  belong  the  spoils,"  it  rules  by 
addressing  the  lowest  passions.  The  caucus,  managed  by 
experts,  instead  of  expressing  the  popular  sense  is  as 
likely  to  express  only  the  command  of  some  partisan 
chief.  Two  or  three  public  men,  with  no  records  of  meri- 
torious service,  by  arts  unworthy  of  statesmen  and  of 
honest  men  are  able  to  override  the  wishes  of  the  con- 
stituent body,  and  to  defy  the  moral  sense  of  the  people. 
They  are,  in  their  field,  stronger  than  churches,  colleges, 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL  DUTIES.  231 

and  public  journals  combined,  —  though  at  times  foiled  by 
some  happy  turn  of  events  which  gives  to  the  party  a 
candidate  worthy,  by  his  culture,  his  character,  and  his 
blameless  record,  of  the  honorable  title  of  statesman. 
They  set  themselves  against  an  improved  civil  service, 
and  checkmate  and  thrust  at  a  President  who  would  make 
the  reform  "  thorough,  radical,  and  complete."  This 
system  of  dictation  by  unscrupulous  partisan  leaders,  with 
a  body  of  henchmen  at  their  backs,  is  perverting  our 
elections  from  a  conflict  of  principles  to  a  struggle  of 
placemen ;  is  destroying  statesmanship,  and  corrupting  the 
sources  of  national  life.  Of  this  system  at  its  start  Dr. 
Von  Hoist,  of  Freiburg,  *  has  said  in  his  recent  review  of 
our  constitutional  and  political  history:  "From  that  hour 
this  maxim  [ '  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils '  ]  has  re- 
mained an  inviolable  principle  of  American  politicians; 
and  it  is  owing  only  to  the  astonishing  vitality  of  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  altogether  unsurpassed 
and  unsurpassable  favor  of  their  natural  conditions,  that 
the  State  has  not  succumbed  under  the  onerous  burden 
of  the  curse." 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  that  a  new  public  spirit  has  arisen 
among  the  young  men  of  the  country,  —  many  of  whom 
are  college  graduates,  —  who  are  carrying  their  independ- 
ent convictions  into  civil  activities,  and  are  demanding, 
with  an  emphasis  which  partisans  are  beginning  to  re- 
spect, that  public  life  shall  be  fairly  expressive  of  the 
intelligence,  the  moral  sentiment,  and  the  patriotism  of 
the  age. 

No  subject  of  national  politics  requires  so  much  the 
attention  of  educated  men  to-day  as  the  reconstruction  of 
our  civil  service  upon  the  principles  of  enlightened  states- 
manship. For  the  first  forty  years  of  our  history  under 

1  More  recently  a  professor  in  the  University  of  Chicago. 


232  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

the  Constitution  that  service  depended  on  personal  integ- 
rity and  fitness,  and  not  upon  political  opinion.  But  with 
President  Jackson  civil  service  and  partisan  service  became 
synonymous,  and  so  they  have  remained  to  this  day. 
While  in  other  respects  the  nation  has  made  remarkable 
advances  in  methods  of  administration,  in  this  its  move- 
ment has  been  retrograde,  and  we  have  fallen  far  behind 
the  progress  of  other  civilized  nations.  The  civil  force 
is  treated  as  a  party  force  to  be  marshalled  in  elections, 
giving  a  portion  of  its  time  and  of  its  compensation  to 
keep  one  party  in  power,  although  the  whole  people  is 
taxed  to  support  it ;  and  still  more  it  is  now  treated  as  the 
working  force  of  a  dominant  faction  within  one  party,  and 
of  senators  who  happen  to  enjoy  Executive  favor.  Mem- 
bers of  Congress  assume  as  a  right  to  open  and  shut  the 
doors  to  the  public  service  among  their  constituents,  thus 
usurping  the  power  which  the  Constitution  has  confided 
only  to  the  President.  This  unconstitutional  pretension 
has  been  maintained  in  recent  times  by  a  remarkable  in- 
novation called  "  the  courtesy  of  the  Senate,"  —  accord- 
ing to  which  a  senator,  objecting  to  a  nomination  for  a 
post  in  his  State  for  no  other  reason  than  that  the  nomi- 
nee is  "  not  his  man,"  is  joined  by  senators  of  his  own 
party  from  other  States,  to  whom  he  is  expected  to  return 
like  favors ;  and  thus  one  branch  of  the  government  seeks 
to  coerce  another  to  surrender  its  unquestioned  preroga- 
tive. So  gross  has  this  abuse  become  that  Mr.  Theodore 
Roosevelt,1  nominated  as  Collector  of  Customs  for  the 
port  of  New  York,  —  a  man  of  eminent  character  and 
fitness,  beloved  for  his  purity  of  life  and  noble  charities, 
—  was  rejected  simply  because  a  senator  from  his  State 
demanded  his  rejection ;  and  he  received  from  senators  of 
his  own  party,  according  to  common  report,  only  the 

1  Father  of  a  distinguished  son  of  the  same  name. 


.  HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  233 

support  of  six,  —  among  whom  were  the  senators  from 
Massachusetts  and  the  junior  senator  from  Rhode  Island. 
The  senator  who  demanded  the  rejection  l  has  been  ambi- 
tious to  display  contempt  for  all  efforts  to  put  the  civil 
service  on  an  honorable  footing,  —  reminding  us,  by  his 
sneers  at  the  movement  to  reform  it,  of  Sir  Robert  Wai- 
pole,  who  in  coarse  and  cynical  irony  was  accustomed  to 
jeer  at  all  who  objected  to  the  gross  parliamentary  cor- 
ruption of  his  time  as  "  patriots,  saints,  Spartans,  boys." 

Thus  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  immense  force  of 
revenue  officers,  postmasters,  marshals,  and  deputies,  who 
are  by  law  and  every  rational  theory  of  government  the 
servants  of  the  whole  public,  have  become  the  servants  of 
one  party,  and  still  more  the  servants  of  individual  parti- 
sans. Fifty  thousand  or  more  office-holders,  whose  duties 
do  not  concern  political  opinion,  are  subject  to  dismissal 
with  new  administrations  and  new  senators.  Witness  the 
natural  effect  of  all  this  on  the  tone  of  public  life !  On 
the  one  hand,  the  officer  who  ought  to  be  the  honorable 
representative  of  his  government  and  people  is  degraded 
to  be  the  subservient,  parasitical  agent  of  a  partisan  chief; 
and  on  the  other,  public  men  expect  to  hold  their  places, 
not  by  their  services  and  principles,  the  policies  they  have 
upheld,  the  measures  they  have  devised  or  carried,  but  by 
their  skill  in  manipulating  caucuses  and  maintaining  a 
compact  body  of  political  dependents.  How  under  such 
a  system  can  self-respect,  efficiency,  and  character  prevail 
in  the  civil  service?  How  under  such  a  training  can  there 
be  honor,  wisdom,  magnanimity,  and  disinterested  patri- 
otism in  statesmen?2 

This  use  of  patronage  for  political  purposes  once  existed 

1  Roscoe  Conkling. 

2  Since  the   date  of  this  address,   the  sphere   of  patronage  has  been 
greatly  reduced  by  legislative  and  Executive  action. 


234  THE    COLLEGE    GRADUATE: 

in  England.  It  was  a  part  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole's  scheme 
of  parliamentary  corruption,  and  flourished  later  under 
Lord  North.  But  the  system  weakened  with  the  progress 
of  reform ;  and  at  length,  as  the  result  of  a  movement 
beginning  in  1853  and  culminating  in  1870,  it  was  dis- 
placed by  a  system  of  merit  and  competition  open  to  all, 
—  to  the  sons  of  tradesmen  and  the  sons  of  noblemen 
alike.  The  reform  has  had  in  its  course  the  efficient  sup- 
port of  eminent  statesmen  of  both  parties  as  members  of 
the  ministry  or  of  parliamentary  commissions,  — Aber- 
deen, Palmerston,  Russell,  Derby,  Northcote,  Sir  Charles 
Trevelyan,  Bright,  and  Lowe.  Less  than  three  months 
ago,  in  a  new  election  which,  after  a  contest  exceeding  in 
interest  and  passion  our  recent  Presidential  elections,  re- 
versed the  foreign  and  domestic  policy  of  the  empire,  of 
the  fifty  thousand  persons  in  the  civil  service  less  than 
fifty,  who  necessarily  were  to  represent  the  new  policy, 
went  out  with  Beaconsfield  and  came  in  with  Gladstone. 

The  colleges  of  the  country  —  its  educated  men  — 
have  it  in  their  power  to  create  a  public  opinion  which 
shall  insure  the  triumph  of  this  reform,  and  compel  the 
retirement  of  public  men  who  stand  in  its  way.  This  is 
a  measure  of  politics,  indeed;  but  it  is  also  a  work  of 
patriotism,  a  movement  of  civilization. 

In  this  connection  and  in  this  presence,  one  name 
above  all  others  deserves  mention,  —  that  of  a  graduate  of 
Brown  University ;  a  native  and  always  a  citizen  of  Rhode 
Island ;  the  earliest,  ablest,  and  most  persistent  advocate 
of  civil-service  reform  in  Congress.  Without  the  support 
of  party  or  any  active  force  of  public  opinion,  he  embodied 
it  in  a  bill  and  defended  it  in  successive  reports  and 
speeches.  He  spoke  like  a  statesman  who  looks  far  be- 
fore and  far  behind  him;  and  while  others  thought  only 
of  local  interests  and  temporary  issues,  he  devoted  him- 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  235 

self  with  his  energy,  his  intellectual  grasp,  and  his  positive 
conviction  to  this  enduring  work  of  statesmanship.  When 
history  shall  record  what  this  generation  has  done  for  the 
elevation  of  American  politics,  it  will  write  in  grateful 
characters  the  name  of  Thomas  Allen  Jenckes. 

The  political  education  of  the  people,  in  a  country  gov- 
erned by  universal  suffrage,  will  always  be  the  duty  of 
those  who  have  had  a  special  opportunity  to  study  poli- 
tical subjects.  In  the  recent  financial  contest  in  this 
country  two  facts  appeared :  First,  that  there  was  a  great 
want  of  definite  knowledge  among  the  people  on  political 
and  economical  questions ;  and  secondly,  that  everywhere 
there  was  a  craving  for  information  concerning  them. 
Large  audiences  in  agricultural  and  manufacturing  districts 
would  listen  for  hours  to  statements  of  the  elementary 
laws  of  political  economy,  accompanied  by  detailed  fig- 
ures and  illustrations.  The  spirit  of  antagonism  to 
society,  which  in  other  countries  breaks  out  in  com- 
munism and  nihilism,  with  us  assumes  the  form  of  an 
attack  on  the  currency.  The  crusade  for  paper  money 
was  made  at  a  period  of  industrial  depression,  and  was 
carried  on  with  an  extraordinary  zeal,  and  with  all  the 
arts  known  to  modern  agitation.  It  became  a  powerful 
political  force,  decided  elections,  carried  one  branch  of 
Congress,  and  well-nigh  involved  us  in  financial  ruin.  The 
delusion  was  arrested  by  a  combined  effort  which  teaches 
a  perpetual  lesson.  A  few  earnest  men  in  the  West  organ- 
ized an  "  Honest  Money  League;"  they  distributed  two 
hundred  thousand  pamphlets ;  they  addressed  the  masses 
not  only  in  populous  centres,  but  sought  remote  villages 
and  the  farming  populations,  and  in  simple  and  effective 
statements  exposed  the  mischievous  sophistries  which  had 
been  industriously  spread.  This  movement,  and  kindred 
efforts  of  our  public  men,  —  notably  those  of  Mr.  Schurz 


236  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

and  Mr.  Garfield,  —  dissipated  popular  ignorance,  and 
saved  this  nation  from  one  of  the  worst  calamities  which 
ever  threatened  it.1  The  educated  man  of  earnest  purpose 
and  positive  conviction  can  follow  the  communist,  the 
inflationist,  the  enemy  of  social  order,  wherever  he  may 
go,  confident  that  the  masses  will  in  the  end  heed  the 
teachings  of  reason  and  experience. 

Public  speaking  —  or  the  "platform"  as  it  is  called  — 
supplies  an  opportunity  for  the  political  education  of  the 
people  in  England  and  the  United  States,  such  as  is  found 
in  no  other  countries.  In  Germany  this  mode  of  acting 
upon  public  opinion  is  not  yet  a  habit,  although  it  is  likely 
to  become  such  with  the  progress  of  the  republican  spirit. 
In  France,  where  a  more  liberal  system  is  now  under  con- 
sideration, the  right  to  hold  a  public  meeting  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  political  questions  is  not  yet  admitted,  even  by 
a  government  founded  on  universal  suffrage.  Such  a 
meeting  can  be  held  only  by  a  license  from  the  Prefect  of 
Police,  rarely  granted  except  during  a  period  of  ten  days 
near  an  election  of  deputies;  and  it  is  denied  altogether 
during  the  three  days  immediately  preceding  the  election. 
At  such  meetings  the  police  are  conspicuously  present,  — 
"  assisting,"  as  it  is  called,  —  with  power  to  close  the  ses- 
sion and  arrest  the  speakers  for  language  which  they  may 
deem  offensive  to  the  government  or  tending  to  disturb 
the  public  peace.  The  English-speaking  race  submits  to 
no  such  despotic  restrictions.  It  maintains  a  platform 
where  the  speaker  may  say  what  he  likes,  and  the  people 
may  listen  to  what  they  like,  —  the  police  being  present 
to  protect,  and  not  to  prevent,  free  speech.  In  the  hour 
of  public  peril,  in  seasons  when  foreign  or  domestic  ques- 
tions press  for  solution,  —  whenever  statesmen  seek  to 

1  Similar  methods  have  since  been  used  in  resisting  the  free-silver  delu- 
sion, Mr.  Schurz  being  again  conspicuous  as  an  advocate  of  honest  money. 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  237 

direct  their  countrymen  in  the  way  of  honor  and  safety, 
or  the  people  to  learn  the  lessons  of  wisdom,  —  you  will 
see  crowds  moved  by  a  common  impulse,  gathering  in  the 
open  air,  under  spreading  tents,  or  in  town-halls,  court- 
houses, or  theatres,  where  orators  and  audiences  have 
absolute  freedom  to  speak  and  listen.  No  English  or 
American  municipality  is  deemed  complete  in  its  appoint- 
ments which  has  not  its  spacious  hall  for  popular  assem- 
blies, —  like  those  of  Birmingham  and  Manchester,  or 
those  of  Boston  and  Worcester.  A  people  which  by  right 
and  habit  maintains  a  free  platform  needs  for  the  main- 
tenance of  domestic  order  no  standing  army,  no  police 
espionage. 

Surely,  one  who  has  had  the  generous  training  of  the 
College  ought,  except  in  rare  cases  of  physical  disability, 
to  qualify  himself  for  guiding  public  opinion  in  this  mode, 
which  is  sanctioned  by  the  customs  and  traditions  of  the 
two  kindred  nations  among  whom  liberty  and  order  stand 
upon  the  surest  foundations.  There  are  indeed  gifts  of 
voice,  manner,  person,  unction,  which  are  born  with  the 
man  and  cannot  be  acquired,  —  such  as  have  distinguished 
Whitefield,  O'Connell,  Kossuth,  and  Bright;  but  a  genius 
for  oratory  is  not  essential  to  effective  public  speaking. 
Cobden  did  not  have  it,  and  yet  no  speaker  has  done  so 
much  in  our  time  to  change,  direct,  and  concentrate  politi- 
cal opinion.  His  style  was  simple,  like  conversation,  and 
rejected  all  the  glitter  of  rhetoric;  but  he  went  straight  to 
the  understanding,  and  carried  conviction  to  audiences 
various  in  tastes  and  prejudices. 

The  style  of  public  speaking  is  changing  for  the  better. 
Stately  periods,  studied  gestures,  and  academic  elabora- 
tion are  less  effective  than  formerly,  and  the  sober  sense 
of  our  time  has  become,  as  it  ought  to  be,  intolerant  of 
turgid  rhetoric  and  certain  affectations  of  passion  and 


238  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

patriotism  which  once  drew  rounds  of  applause;  but  the 
capacity  to  give  to  a  popular  assembly  well-considered 
thoughts  upon  political  and  social  themes  was  never  a 
power  so  effective  for  good  as  it  is  to-day.  The  educated 
man  cannot  afford  to  dispense  with  it,  —  least  of  all,  as  some 
do,  to  depreciate  it.  Of  what  avail  is  much  of  the  college 
curriculum,  —  the  study  of  rhetoric  and  logic,  the  writing 
of  dissertations  with  infinite  labor  limae,  the  training  in 
elocution,  the  exercises  in  declamation,  the  debates  of 
the  societies,  the  parts  on  exhibition  and  commencement 
days,  —  if  after  one  has  painfully  wrought  the  weapons  for 
maintaining  truth  and  assailing  error  before  men,  he  is  to 
lay  them  aside  forever  like  rusty  armor  in  an  attic? 

A  condition  of  public  speaking  in  England  and  the 
United  States  deserves  mention,  —  and  I  delight  here  as 
always  to  join  together  two  kindred  nations  who  ought 
ever  to  act  as  one  in  movements  of  civilization,  and  whose 
common  language  and  spirit  are  destined  to  a  dominion 
wider  and  more  enduring  than  those  of  any  race.  Else- 
where the  orator  addresses  the  self-interest,  the  instinct 
for  equality,  loyalty,  love  of  glory,  nationality ;  but  with 
the  English-speaking  race  the  appeal  to  the  moral  sense 
has  been  most  effective.  So  it  was  when  this  nation  broke 
the  fetters  of  four  millions  of  slaves ;  so  it  was  when  the 
English  people  abolished  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
when,  a  few  weeks  ago  in  the  election  of  a  new  govern- 
ment, they  declared  that  their  arms  and  diplomacy  should 
no  longer  be  used  to  uphold  Moslem  barbarism  and  op- 
pression in  eastern  Europe,  or  to  wage  aggressive  warfare 
upon  uncivilized  races  in  Africa  and  Asia. 

The  scholar  must  not  allow  his  superior  attainments  to 
isolate  him  from  common  sympathies.  If  he  would  help 
men  he  must  remain  of  them,  and  while  he  directs  them 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL  DUTIES.  239 

to  ".nobler  modes  of  life,  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws," 
take  always  the  best  view  of  their  conduct  and  purposes. 
The  satirist  may  laugh  at  the  follies  of  a  degenerate  age, 
but  satire  never  arrested  national  decline.  He  may,  like 
Pascal  in  the  "  Provincial  Letters,"  unmask  the  hypocrisy 
of  some  class  or  order;  but  his  weapon  serves  no  end 
when  aimed  at  his  generation.  The  cynic,  with  his  con- 
tempt for  mankind,  will  find  that  mankind  has  no  ear  for 
him.  Men  will  accept  as  guide  only  him  who  comes  to 
them  with  the  tone  and  manner  of  a  friend. 

A  certain  class  of  scholars  in  our  day  and  country  — 
not  a  large  one,  it  may  be  —  appear  to  be  pessimists  in 
their  reflections  on  public  affairs.  Their  general  views  are 
excellent,  but  their  cynical  tone  deprives  them  of  the  in- 
fluence which  justly  belongs  to  their  high  character  and 
their  unquestioned  patriotism.  They  see  in  public  life 
only  corruption  and  low  ambition.  They  mourn  over  the 
failure  of  universal  suffrage,  instead  of  marking  its  evils 
and  showing  in  what  better  way  mankind  may  be  gov- 
erned. At  literary  festivals,  in  journals  and  magazines 
distinguished  by  finish  of  style  and  sharpness  of  wit,  and 
in  poems  also,  they  lament  the  decline  of  national  virtue, 
and  can  see  nothing  but  Tweeds  in  politics  and  Fisks  on 
the  exchange.  It  is  curious  to  note  —  and  I  trust  the  ob- 
servation will  not  offend  the  sensibilities  of  any  —  that 
those  who  take  this  depressing  view  of  human  nature  in 
our  age  and  country  are  conspicuously  those  who  in 
religious  belief  cherish  the  hopeful  theory  of  its  develop- 
ment; while  those  who,  following  Augustine,  treat  human 
life  as  a  probation,  beginning  with  depravity  and  continu- 
ing a  mortal  struggle  with  foes  within  and  without,  never 
seem  to  fail  in  courage  whether  contending  with  sin  at 
home  or  civilizing  savage  races  abroad.  A  profound 
religious  conviction,  narrow  or  uncultured  though  it  be, 
is  never  cynical  or  pessimistic. 


240  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

Never  in  human  history  —  never,  certainly  in  thai  his- 
tory of  our  country — has  there  been  a  time  when  it 
would  be  so  irrational  to  lose  faith  in  man  as  now.  Every- 
where there  is  work  for  the  patriot,  the  scholar,  and  the 
Christian ;  but  nowhere  does  he  confront  desperate  evils. 
In  religion,  in  politics,  in  the  maintenance  of  every-day  as 
well  as  of  heroic  virtues  there  is  no  decline. 

Our  age  is  not  a  superstitious  one ;  hardly,  in  the  tech- 
nical sense,  a  religious  one,  —  that  is,  in  its  interest  in 
traditional  points  of  controversy.  It  subordinates  dogma 
to  conduct ;  it  mellows  the  old  creeds  or  gives  them  a 
liberal  construction,  —  but  it  is  loyal  to  the  substance  of 
faith.  One  may  indeed  fasten  on  certain  aspects  of  modern 
thought,  —  agnosticism,  for  instance,  —  and  lament,  as 
men  have  always  lamented,  the  decay  of  faith  ;  but  his 
outlook  would  be  narrow  and  partial.  Life,  if  we  com- 
pare the  Sacred  Record  with  our  personal  observation, 
is  purer  now  than  it  was  among  the  believers  of  Rome  and 
Corinth  who  were  converted  by  the  direct  ministrations 
of  the  Apostles.  On  the  platform,  in  public  journals  and 
in  social  life,  the  Christian  belief  and  its  ministers  were 
never  treated  with  more  genuine  respect.  Even  Rational- 
ists and  Positivists  confess  the  prudential  argument  for 
revealed  religion  and  its  beneficent  power  in  the  civiliza- 
tion and  government  of  mankind.  An  English  writer, 
who  ranks  as  a  Positivist,  confessed  to  me  last  summer 
that  it  was  the  religious  bodies  which  had  saved  the  min- 
ing and  manufacturing  districts  of  England  from  barbar- 
ism. For  half  a  century  Mr.  Emerson  has  been  regarded 
by  many  good  people  as  a  very  dangerous  teacher,  and 
yet  not  long  ago,  as  an  overseer  of  Harvard  College,  he 
gave  his  voice  as  well  as  his  vote  against  dispensing  with 
the  compulsory  attendance  of  students  on  the  morning 
prayers  ;  and  some  have  thought  they  discovered  in  his 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  241 

later  utterances  on  religion  a  definite  departure  from  the 
pantheism  which  was  ascribed  to  his  earlier  productions. 

Our  people  have  in  recent  history  shown  in  their  rela- 
tion as  citizens  not  only  the  finer  and  more  subtile  inspira- 
tions which  rise  and  subside  with  heroic  periods,  but  also 
the  equally  essential  though  less  shining  qualities  on  which 
constitutional  government  depends,  —  good  sense,  patience, 
moderation,  tolerance  of  adverse  opinion,  the  spirit  of  con- 
cession, tact  in  meeting  new  exigencies  where  the  written 
law  or  precedents  fail,  and  sobriety  in  the  midst  of  circum- 
stances which  move  the  depths  of  popular  passion.  The 
surrender  of  Mason  and  Slidell ;  the  maintenance  of  peace 
with  France  when  Louis  Napoleon  was  scheming  for  inter- 
vention in  our  Civil  War  (from  which  we  were  saved  by 
the  refusal  of  the  British  Cabinet),  and  was  sending  troops 
to  Mexico  to  extend  the  dominion  of  the  Latin  race  on 
this  continent;  the  maintenance  of  peace  with  England 
when  "  Alabamas,"  built  in  her  dockyards  and  issuing  from 
her  ports,  were  sweeping  our  commerce  from  the  ocean, — 
these  are  signal  instances  of  national  self-control.  What 
nation  could  more  peacefully  and  fairly  have  settled  the 
disputed  succession  to  a  throne  than  we  settled  the  Presi- 
dential controversy  of  1876  by  its  submission  to  a  new 
tribunal  of  fifteen  men  in  an  emergency  for  which  the  Con- 
stitution had  made  no  provision,  —  the  award  made  by  one 
majority,  and  one  member  afterwards  stating  that  the  case 
appeared  so  balanced  that  he  first  wrote  opinions  on  both 
sides  in  order  the  better  to  present  the  opposite  views  to 
his  own  mind?  And  yet  forty-five  millions  of  people, 
without  disturbance,  without  the  resistance  of  a  single 
citizen,  without  the  arming  of  a  single  soldier,  accepted  as 
law  and  government  a  judgment  rendered  on  so  narrow 
an  issue  by  the  casting  vote  of  one  hesitating  man ! 

We  have  lifted  four  millions  of  slaves  to  manhood  and 

16 


242  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

citizenship,  men  of  another  color  and  another  race, — 
an  achievement  for  which  De  Tocqueville,  abolitionist 
though  he  was,  did  not  dare  to  hope ;  and  we  have  done 
it  with  less  personal  violence,  less  disturbance  of  industry, 
less  friction  of  social  forces  than  the  most  sanguine  patriot 
imagined  was  possible.  More  recently,  as  we  have  seen, 
a  destructive  theory  of  finance  seemed  to  overcome  the 
popular  imagination ;  but  the  fanaticism  was  arrested  by 
appeals  to  sober  reason. 

And  when  heroic  qualities  have  been  needed,  has  this 
people  ever  been  found  wanting?  In  1861  we  appeared 
to  foreign  observers,  even  to  many  of  ourselves,  to  be 
given  up  to  materialism,  —  loving  comfort,  greedy  of 
wealth,  feeble  in  national  spirit,  lacking  in  personal  cour- 
age, without  faith  in  ourselves  and  our  country;  and  for- 
eign statesmen,  even  the  best  of  them,  with  few  exceptions, 
believed  our  dissolution  was  at  hand.  But  when  our  peo- 
ple faced  the  dread  questions,  whether  the  country  of 
Washington  should  be  severed  in  twain,  whether  the 
Mississippi  should  flow  through  divided  empires,  whether 
slavery  should  be  perpetual  on  this  continent,  whether  the 
hope  of  the  nations  should  be  darkened,  there  rose  a  spirit 
from  east  to  west,  —  from  farm,  work-shop,  factory,  col- 
lege, —  a  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  patriotism,  nationality, 
and  devotion  to  liberty,  which  has  won  the  admiration  of 
mankind,  and  will  move  the  souls  of  distant  posterity  as 
the  stories  of  Leonidas  (savior  of  Greece)  and  of  William 
of  Orange  (savior  of  Holland)  have  swayed  the  departed 
generations. 

Let  us,  then,  my  brethren,  have  faith  in  the  suffrage 
of  the  people,  though  it  does  not  elect  us ;  in  our  coun- 
try, though  another  party  than  our  own  should  succeed ; 
in  religion,  though  our  particular  sect  dwindles;  in  the 
human  race,  though  it  does  not  always  behave  as  we 
would  have  it. 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL   DUTIES.  243 

And  now  a  final  word  to  the  young  men  who  to-morrow 
are  to  receive  their  commissions  from  the  University. 
You  meet  at  the  threshold  of  your  career  a  period  of  great 
interest  and  activity,  and  with  the  opening  of  the  twentieth 
century  you  will  be  in  all  the  prime  of  manly  power. 
There  will  be  in  your  day,  as  in  all  days,  ignorance  to  be 
overcome,  delusions  to  be  dispelled,  low  ambition  to  be 
withstood,  noble  causes  to  be  advanced.  Here  then  is 
your  opportunity:  here  also  is  your  duty.  Carry  into  the 
State  and  into  the  Church  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  College  ; 
hold  fast  to  the  independent  conviction  which  is  born  of 
your  training;  maintain  your  individuality  against  com- 
bined masses,  your  right  of  private  judgment  against  all 
aggressive  force ;  keep  your  heart  warm  and  healthy  by 
contact  with  the  people ;  have  faith  in  the  best  instincts  of 
living  men  and  in  the  highest  possibilities  of  your  race. 
If  the  world's  best  things  come  to  you,  use  them  with 
moderation;  but  if  fame  and  fortune  leave  you  uncrowned, 
you  will  deserve  well  of  Alma  Mater  if  you  live  brave, 
honest,  simple  lives,  and  all  the  ends  you  aim  at  be  your 
country's,  your  God's,  and  truth's. 

The  letters  which  follow  will  convey  some  idea  of  the  reception 
given  at  the  time  to  the  foregoing  address.  Two  of  them  were 
from  gentlemen  (Messrs.  Bullock'  and  Rice)  who  had  been  gover- 
nors of  Massachusetts ;  and  one  was  from  General  Devens,  then 
Attorney- General  of  the  United  States.  The  first  is  from  Rev. 
Dr.  Munger,  the  well-known  theologian,  who  in  later  years  has 
been  associated  with  a  distinguished  ministry  at  New  Haven, 
Connecticut. 

NORTH  ADAMS,  August  12,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  have  just  finished  reading  your 
address  at  Brown.  I  hardly  know  what  feature  of  it  to  place 
highest,  —  the  transparent  style,  the  absolute  appropriateness  to 


244  THE   COLLEGE   GRADUATE: 

the  occasion,  the  broad,  ripe  wisdom  and  grasp,  or  the  moral 
tone.  But  I  think  I  admire  most  the  unhesitating,  concrete  illus- 
tration of  every  point  and  principle  you  urge,  because  it  makes 
the  address  so  effective.  It  is  very  well  to  think  abstractly  and 
under  philosophic  forms,  —  such  indeed  is  the  tendency  of 
thought,  —  but  it  is  not  the  best  form  under  which  to  speak. 

I  am  very  glad  your  address  has  been  printed,  and  I  hope  it  will 
be  widely  read.  It  cannot  fail  to  inspire  and  uplift  any  who  read 
it.  Anything  that  sets  life  before  one  in  a  noble  way  is  to  be 
praised.  After  all,  there  is  nothing  much  higher  we  can  do  for 
our  fellow-men  than  to  utter  the  word  that  inspires  them. 
Yours  faithfully, 

T.  T.  HUNGER. 

WORCESTER,  August  15,  1880. 

DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  should  sooner  have  thanked  you  for 
sending  me  a  copy  of  your  admirable  address  delivered  at  Provi- 
dence, but  I  have  waited  till  I  could  say  that  I  had  read  it 
through.  This  I  have  done  to-day  with  the  greatest  pleasure,  and 
I  hasten  to  assure  you  that  the  perusal  of  it  has  not  only  gratified 
but  stimulated  me.  I  do  not  know  when  the  season  of  literary 
festivities  has  turned  out  anything  so  good.  I  had  first  marked 
and  turned  down  corners  to  indicate  topics  most  successfully 
treated,  but  the  whole  is  so  excellent  that  I  have  turned  back  the 
corners  and  packed  the  pamphlet  away  as  altogether  good.  I 
only  add,  by  way  of  specification,  that  I  do  like  the  freedom 
with  which  you  speak  of  men.  Now,  believe  me  with  great 
regard, 

Truly  and  faithfully, 

ALEX.  H.  BULLOCK. 

BEVERLY  FARMS,  August  16,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  thank  you  for  sending  me  your  eloquent  and 
impressive  address.  There  was  never  more  need  of  its  lessons 
than  now,  when  too  many  educated  men  are  forgetting  that  savoir, 
as  well  as  noblesse,  oblige, 

Very  truly  yours, 

O.  W.  HOLMES. 


HIS   PUBLIC   AND   SOCIAL  DUTIES. 


245 


DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE,  WASHINGTON, 
August  18,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  I  read  with  the  greatest  interest  when  it  ap- 
peared in  the  "  Advertiser  "  your  address  on  the  duties  of  the 
College  Graduate.  I  am  exceedingly  obliged  to  you  for  a  copy  of 
the  address  in  more  permanent  form,  as  I  feel  it  is  one  of  the 
highest  value. 

Your  obt.  servant, 

CHAS.  DEVENS. 

ASHFIELD,  Mass.,  August  19,  1880. 

MY  DEAR  PIERCE,  —  Perhaps  you  saw  in  my  paper  [Harper's 
Weekly]  that  I  had  received  your  address,  which  is  very  admirable, 
and  of  which  the  "  Evening  Post "  told  the  truth  in  a  pleasant  way. 
Such  talk  to  young  men  is  worth  while,  and  our  Commencements 
will  have  a  use  still. 

Very  truly  yours, 

GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. 

BOSTON,  September  3,  1880. 

DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  have  read  your  address  with  great 
pleasure.  It  is  a  thoughtful  and  interesting  address,  scholarly  and 
instructive,  and  breathes  throughout  the  inspiration  of  a  high  and 

virtuous  ambition. 

Very  truly  yours, 

ALEX.  H.  RICE. 

MASSACHUSETTS  INSTITUTE  OF  TECHNOLOGY, 
BOSTON,   January  24,  1881. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  read  with  very  great  interest  and  pleasure 
the  address  on  the  Public  and  Social  Duties  of  the  College  Grad- 
uate which  you  have  so  kindly  sent  me.  That  interest  was  greatly 
heightened  by  my  personal  knowledge  of  several  of  the  eminent 
gentlemen  to  whom  you  so  eloquently  allude. 

The  chord  you  have  struck  will  long  vibrate.  I  wish,  for  its 
largest  and  most  permanent  effect,  that  the  address  could  be  printed 
in  one  of  the  half-hour  or  handy-volume  series  now  issuing  from 

the  press. 

Yours  truly, 

FRANCIS  A.  WALKER. 


246  TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ. 


IX. 


ON  the  22d  of  March,  1881,  a  complimentary  dinner  was  given 
at  the  Hotel  Vendome,  in  Boston,  to  Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  who  had 
just  completed  four  years  of  service  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Hayes.  Among  the  gentlemen  who 
spoke  on  that  occasion  besides  the  distinguished  guest,  were  Pre- 
sident Eliot  of  Harvard  University,  Rev.  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis, 
Rev.  Dr.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  Dr.  E.  B.  de  Gersdoff,  and  Theo- 
dore Lyman.  Col.  Charles  R.  Codman  presided,  and  introduced 
Mr.  Pierce  as  the  "  friend  and  biographer  "  of  Charles  Sumner. 


TRIBUTE   TO    CARL   SCHURZ. 

AMONG  living  statesmen,  I  know  no  one  to  whom  I 
would  more  gladly  pay  a  tribute  of  respect  than  to  the  hon- 
orable guest  whom  we  now  welcome.  He  has  had  the 
felicity  to  cover  with  his  life  a  great  period,  and  to  fasten 
his  name  to  it  in  both  hemispheres.  Fresh  and  vigorous 
he  comes  to  us,  his  features  still  youthful,  his  locks  not  as 
yet  silvered,  and,  as  we  believe,  with  opportunities  and 
honors  before  him  not  less  than  those  in  retrospect.  While 
yet  a  student,  he  became  the  partisan  of  popular  rights  in 
1848,  —  a  year  which  witnessed  the  revival  of  the  spirit  of 
liberty  both  in  Europe  and  the  United  States.  He  is  re- 
membered in  Germany  for  his  chivalrous  rescue,  from  the 
fortress  of  Spandau,  of  the  patriot  Johann  Gottfried  Kinkel, 
—  now  a  Professor  of  the  History  of  Art  at  Zurich,  whom 
it  was  my  privilege  to  meet  two  years  ago  in  that  city,  at 


TRIBUTE   TO   CARL  SCHURZ.  247 

the  house  of  my  friend  Mr.  Guyer,  where  we  had  much  dis- 
course on  the  noble  career  of  our  guest  After  a  year's 
residence  in  London,  he  came  to  this  country  in  1852 ;  and 
in  six  years  or  less  from  that  time  he  was  able  to  address 
audiences  in  English,  using  our  language  with  a  facility,  a 
vigor  of  expression,  and  a  keen  sense  of  idioms  which 
belong  to  but  few  with  whom  it  is  the  vernacular.  No 
foreigner,  unless  it  be  Kossuth,  has  been  his  rival  in  this 
regard.  In  his  speeches  he  showed  from  the  beginning, 
not  only  a  breadth  of  vision  and  capacity  for  applying  the 
methods  of  philosophy  to  political  questions  which  might 
have  been  expected  from  one  of  his  gifts  and  nationality, 
but  as  well  a  vivid  perception  of  the  details  of  our  history, 
early  and  later,  and  a  delicate  appreciation  of  the  local  and 
national  spirit  which  has  informed  its  successive  epochs. 
Among  our  public  men,  to-day,  where  will  you  find  another 
so  accomplished,  so  well  equipped  on  all  sides  for  public 
service,  —  speaking  and  thinking  in  three  languages,  and 
in  each  easily  and  well ;  a  student  of  all  political  science 
from  the  start,  and  not  forced  to  cram  for  some  new  ques- 
tion or  current  of  opinion ;  matching  senators  in  debate, 
and  instructing  with  marvellous  skill  popular  audiences 
on  abstruse  subjects  of  political  economy;  and,  with  all 
this,  energetic  and  practical  in  the  management  of  public 
business? 

There  is  not  time  this  evening  to  review  in  detail  the 
services  of  Mr.  Schurz  on  the  platform,  in  the  field,  the 
senate,  and  the  cabinet;  but  some  leading  points  in  his 
career  may  be  recalled.  In  1858  he  was  active  in  the 
senatorial  canvass  in  Illinois  which  gave  Mr.  Lincoln  a 
national  reputation,  and  led  to  his  nomination  two  years 
later  for  the  Presidency;  and  in  the  same  year  he  aided 
effectively  in  a  Republican  success  in  Wisconsin.  No  man 
in  1860  did  so  much  as  he  to  carry  the  German  vote,  —  a 


248  TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ. 

vote  which  was  essential  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  election ;   and  in 
that  most  important  canvass  of   our  history  he  was   the 
peer,    before    audiences  of  English-speaking    citizens,  of 
Seward,  Sumner,  and  Chase.     In  our  Civil  War,   months 
before  the  issue  of  the  proclamation  of  emancipation,  at  a 
time  when  our  government  disowned  an  antislavery  policy, 
he  sought  a  discharge  from  our  diplomatic  service  in  Spain, 
unwilling    to    remain    longer    a    distant  spectator    of  the 
struggle;   and  on  his  return  he  forecast  the   future  in  his 
remarkable  speech  in  March,  1862,  at  the  Cooper  Institute, 
entitled  "  Reconciliation  by  Emancipation,"  —  maintaining 
that  a  mere  victory  of  arms  would  be  but  half  a  victory, 
and  that  there  could  be  no  assured  peace  without  a  new 
society  at  the  South  founded  on  equality  of  rights,  filled 
with  new  hopes  and  aspirations,  and  harmonizing  at  once 
with  the  spirit  of  our  institutions  and  of  the  age.     In  our 
recent    financial  controversy,  which  is  destined  to  be  of 
perpetual  historic  interest,  many  men  in  public  and  private 
life  rendered  eminent  service ;  but  here,  again,  in  the  fore- 
most rank  of  public  benefactors  Mr.  Schurz  will  have  a 
place.     Though  living  in  a  section  of  the  country  strangely 
infected  with  false  theories  of  currency,  he  never  wavered 
a  moment,  never  yielded  an  iota  to  popular  clamor.     The 
critical  period  of  that   contest  was  the  election  in  Ohio  in 
the  autumn  of  1875.     If  the  result  had  then  been  different, 
we  should  probably  be  struggling  to-day  with  an  irredeem- 
able   currency,    shifting  in   values,    obstructing    business, 
impairing  the  public  credit,  and  corrupting  the   morals  of 
the  people.     In  the  summer  of  that  year  some  gentlemen 
—  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  then  governor  of  Ohio,  among 
them  —  met  at  Cincinnati  to  confer  as  to  the  exigency ; 
and  there  it  was  determined   to  send  a  telegram  to  Mr. 
Schurz,  then  in  Switzerland,  urging  him  to  come  home  at 
once  and  participate  in  the  canvass.     He  came,  obedient  to 


TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ.  249 

the  summons ;  and  what  service  he  rendered  and  with 
what  effect,  is  known  to  all.  Later,  when  here  in  Massa- 
chusetts a  similar  issue  was  pending,  his  speech  in  Tremont 
Temple,  distinguished  for  its  force  of  statement  and  lucid- 
ity of  illustration,  was  the  one  which  was  spread  in  great 
numbers  by  the  State  Committee  in  every  village  of  the 
Commonwealth.1 

And  now  our  distinguished  guest  has  just  laid  aside  the 
duties  of  a  high  public  trust,  in  which  he  has  proved  a 
capacity  for  administration  *equal  to  that  which  he  had 
already  shown  in  the  discussion  of  public  questions.  He 
has  presided  over  that  department  of  the  national  govern- 
ment which,  though  attracting  less  than  those  of  finance 
and  foreign  affairs  the  popular  interest  and  imagination, 
exacts  greater  labor,  embraces  more  miscellaneous  duties, 
and  requires  the  application  of  more  various  powers  than 
any  other,  —  covering  as  it  does  agriculture,  patents,  the 
census,  public  lands,  national  education,  and  the  Indian 
tribes.  In  all  this  he  h^s  done  well.  He  has  been  so 
clear  in  his  office  that  intemperate  criticism  has  been 
unable  to  impeach  his  integrity  and  honor.  He  leaves 
behind  no  acts  to  be  investigated.  He  has  deserved  well 
of  the  Republic  by  his  persistence  and  success  in  purging 
the  Indian  service  of  the  scandals  and  abuses  which  have 
been  traditional  with  it.  He  has  uniformly  applied  to  his 
department  the  same  system  of  admissions  and  promo- 
tions which  prevails  in  all  well-conducted  commercial 
business,  and  which  ought  to  prevail  without  favoritism 
in  the  business  of  government.  He  has  done  for  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  Indian  what  no  predecessor  had  done,  — 
testing  his  fidelity  in  responsible  trusts  and  his  capacity 

1  Mr.  Schurz,  in  his  address  on  the  free  coinage  of  silver  at  Chicago, 
September  5,  1896,  maintained  the  foremost  position  which  he  had  hereto- 
fore held  in  the  debate  on  financial  questions. 


250 


TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ. 


for  higher  education  ;  promoting  as  never  before  his  indi- 
vidual ownership  of  the  soil,  and  thus  preparing  the  way 
for  the  time,  not  far  distant  let  us  hope,  when  like  the 
African,  who  is  no  longer  slave  or  freedman,  the  Indian, 
dropping  his  exceptional  status,  shall  be  registered  only  as 
an  American  citizen. 

On  the  Indian  question  there  is  one  pre-eminent  author- 
ity, —  Bishop  Whipple.  With  him  this  is  no  new  sensa- 
tion, no  fresh  topic  of  declamation.  He  has  known  the 
Indian  for  a  quarter  of  a  cenfrury,  not  afar  off,  but  by  im- 
mediate intercourse  with  him  in  camp  and  wigwam.  He 
has  been  quick  to  see  the  red  man's  wrongs,  and  fearless 
in  denouncing  them.  By  his  consecration  to  the  work,  he 
reminds  us  of  kindred  services  to  aboriginal  races  ren- 
dered, within  our  memory,  by  Selwyn  and  Patteson  on  a 
distant  continent.  Says  this  distinguished  expert  on  the 
Indian  question, — 

"  It  is  due  to  Mr.  Schurz  that  I  should  say,  that,  in  twenty-one 
years'  intercourse  with  this  department,  I  have  never  found  an 
officer  of  the  government  more  ready  to  examine  into  the  wrongs 
done  to  the  Indians ;  .wherever  proof  has  been  submitted,  he  has 
tried  to  redress  the  wrong.  He  has  shown  a  courage  and  fidelity 
in  the  discharge  of  duty  which  called  out  my  hearty  gratitude. 
To  him  we  owe  the  establishment  of  Indian  police,  the  employ- 
ment of  Indian  freighters,  the  removal  of  bad  white  men  for  im- 
morality, and  many  other  reforms." 

To  my  mind,  the  testimony  of  this  saintly  bishop  is 
worth  more  than  that  of  the  critics  whose  new-born  zeal 
for  the  Indian  has  behind  it  no  toils  and  sacrifices  in  his 
behalf. 

The  ex-Secretary  will  remember  how,  from  his  earliest 
connection  with  his  department,  I  have  said  to  him  with 
reiteration :  "  Let  no  temptation  of  honor  or  service  else- 


TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ.  251 

where  draw  you,  let  no  calumnies  ever  drive  you,  from 
your  post,  but  remain  there  till  your  chief  closes  his  ad- 
ministration. Attest  your  capacity  for  affairs,  and  carry 
into  effect  the  opinions  and  policies  you  have  developed 
in  speech."  And  now  I  gladly  join,  when  his  work  is 
finished,  in  the  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant !  " 
with  which  this  city  and  State  salute  him  at  the  close  of 
his  official  term. 

Our  guest  has  sometimes,  in  the  pleasantry  of  social 
intercourse,  said  that  I  "  invented  "  him.  If,  indeed,  I  am 
entitled  to  the  credit  of  having  in  any  way  called  public 
attention  to  him  at  an  early  period  of  his  career,  I  esteem 
myself  fortunate.  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed  a  moment 
to  explain  this  reference  by  Mr.  Schurz  to  the  manner  of 
his  original  introduction  to  this  community.  In  April, 
1859,  a  few  of  us  were  engaged  in  an  effort  to  defeat  a 
constitutional  amendment  which  discriminated  against  citi- 
zens of  foreign  nativity.  Meeting  Senator  Wilson  on  the 
steps  of  the  State  House,  I  called  his  attention  to  the 
movement.  He  said  that  he  had  just  received  a  letter 
from  the  most  eloquent  German  in  the  country,  stating 
how  prejudicial  to  the  Republican  cause  in  the  coming 
national  election  of  1860  would  be  the  success  of  that 
proposition.  At  my  request,  he  gave  the  name  of  the 
writer,  then  unknown  to  me.  It  was  the  name  of  our 
guest.  The  same  day  I  posted  a  letter  to  Mr.  Schurz, 
asking  him  for  some  expression  of  opinion  on  the  question 
which  might  be  publicly  used,  and  adding  incidentally 
that  I  wished  he  might  be  present  at  a  dinner  soon  to 
be  given  in  this  city  commemorative  of  the  birthday  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  where  it  was  proposed  to  emphasize 
that  statesman's  well-known  sympathies  with  all  who 
sought  among  us  an  asylum  from  foreign  oppression. 


252 


TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ. 


It  happened  to  be  convenient  for  Mr.  Schurz  to  make  the 
journey  hither;  and,  accepting  the  invitation,  he  arrived 
just  as  the  guests  were  about  to  enter  the  dining-hall  at 
Parker's. 

It  was  a  notable  occasion.  Ex-Governor  Boutwell,  as 
chairman,  spoke  with  deliberation  on  the  place  of  Jeffer- 
son in  our  history.  Other  speakers  were  Henry  Wilson, 
John  P.  Hale,  Erastus  Hopkins,  and  John  A.  Andrew,  — 
the  last  being  associated  with  Henry  L.  Pierce  as  one  of 
the  active  managers  of  the  festivity.  Letters  of  sympathy 
were  read  from  William  C.  Bryant,  William  H.  Seward, 
and  Abraham  Lincoln,  —  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  being  re- 
markable for  its  sententious  statement  of  the  issues  of  that 
period.  But  among  the  incidents  of  the  day  Mr.  Schurz's 
speech  was  the  most  noted.  He  was  then  thirty  years  of 
age.  Of  those  present  few  had  ever  heard  of  him,  and 
probably  only  Senator  Wilson  had  ever  met  him  before. 
His  brief  remarks  interested  and  charmed  all;  and,  though 
the  season  was  late,  there  was  a  general  demand  that  he 
should  speak  in  some  public  place  in  Boston,  and  Faneuil 
Hall  was  secured  for  the  purpose.  It  fell  to  me  to  call 
the  meeting  to  order  with  some  preliminary  remarks,  and 
then  to  introduce  Senator  Wilson,  who  presided.  Mr. 
Schurz's  speech,  which  he  prepared  in  the  few  interven- 
ing days  between  his  arrival  here  and  the  time  of  the 
meeting,  was  published  in  full  in  the  Boston  and  New 
York  journals.  It  established  his  rank  as  an  orator  of 
the  first  order,  and  from  that  time  he  was  in  great  re- 
quest in  the  Eastern  States  as  a  lecturer  before  lyceums 
and  a  speaker  in  political  contests.  Twenty- two  years 
ago  he  came  to  us  unknown ;  but  he  now  comes  to  us 
with  a  fame  for  eloquence  and  beneficent  service  which 
has  become  a  part  of  American  history.  With  every 
visit  to  Boston  he  has  found  an  ever-widening  circle  of 


TRIBUTE   TO   CARL   SCHURZ.  253 

friends,  while  those  he  has  known  the  longest  are  as  fast 
bound  to  him  as  ever. 

My  last  word  must  be  of  a  tender  tone.  Mr.  Schurz 
became  a  senator  in  1869,  when  Mr.  Sumner  was  serving 
his  last  term.  It  was  the  period  in  the  career  of  our  Mas- 
sachusetts senator  in  which  he  suffered  much,  —  pain  of 
body  intense  and  prolonged,  the  antagonisms  of  political 
associates,  the  withdrawal  of  some  he  had  counted  as 
friends,  the  hand  of  power  laid  heavily  upon  him,  the  cen- 
sure of  the  Commonwealth  he  had  served  so  long  (happily 
recalled  before  it  was  too  late),  —  a  period  closed  by  death. 
In  all  this  our  guest  was  a  loyal  friend,  sympathetic  in  pri- 
vate intercourse,  tender  at  the  bedside  and  in  the  last 
offices,  chivalrous  and  valiant  in  public  defence.  As  we 
recognize  by  this  public  festivity  the  character  and  services 
of  a  statesman,  it  is  a  grateful  thought  that  we  are  also 
doing  justice  and  honor  to  Sumner's  faithful  friend. 


254  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 


X. 


THE  town  of  Stoughton,  in  Massachusetts,  held  dedicatory  ser- 
vices of  a  new  Town  House,  November  22,  1881.  Stoughton  was 
Mr.  Pierce's  native  place,  and  as  one  of  its  sons  he  was  invited  to 
deliver  the  address. 


THE  TOWN  OF  STOUGHTON. 

CITIZENS,  —  You  are  here  this  afternoon  to  open  for 
public  use  your  new  Town  House.  On  other  occasions, 
divided  into  families  or  associations  of  various  kinds,  you 
meet  in  dwellings,  churches,  or  halls  which  are  erected  for 
private  or  social  uses  ;  but  here  all  citizens,  however 
otherwise  classified  or  associated,  meet  with  equal  rights 
to  enjoy  now  and  hereafter  this  building,  so  ample  in  pro- 
portions, so  well  arranged,  and  furnished  with  reference  to 
utility,  comfort,  and  taste.  Here  are  combined  this  spa- 
cious hall  for  your  eleven  hundred  voters;  a  hall  less 
capacious  and  more  convenient,  when  the  attendance  may 
not  be  so  numerous  ;  a  room  for  the  Public  Library, 
which,  founded  in  1874,  now  contains  three  thousand  vol- 
umes ;  a  room  for  the  national  post-office,  convenient  to 
the  public ;  apartments  for  municipal  officers,  and  ante- 
rooms for  the  accommodation  of  guests  on  festive  occa- 
sions. Here  your  town-meetings  are  to  be  held  for 
administering  local  affairs,  and  for  receiving  votes  in 
national  and  State  elections.  Here  you  are  to  discuss  in 
popular  assemblies  the  political  and  moral  questions  which 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  255 

may  from  time  to  time  arise.  Here  the  young,  full  of 
vital  energy  and  spirit,  with  lively  social  affinities,  are  to 
join  in  recreations  both  healthy  and  refining.  Here,  in  a 
word,  is  to  be  the  centre  of  public  interests,  and  the  re- 
sort for  whatever  of  social  activity  the  private  house  is  too 
small  and  the  church  too  sacred  to  permit.  Glancing  as 
we  may  into  the  future,  it  is  pleasant  to  contemplate  how 
much  of  beneficent  effort,  of  moral  and  intellectual  growth, 
of  neighborly  sympathies,  of  solemn  thought  on  issues 
of  life,  duty,  and  humanity,  this  hall  is  to  be  the  theatre 
and  witness.  Regarding  the  occasion  in  this  light,  it 
becomes  impressive  and  inspiring. 

Except  during  the  brief  space  of  six  years,  this  town 
has  not  had  a  house  of  its  own  set  apart  specially  for  civic 
uses.  For  more  than  a  hundred  years  after  its  incorpo- 
ration it  held  its  meetings  in  the  parish  meeting-house,  — 
either  in  the  one  situated  in  what  is  now  Canton,  or  in 
the  one  built  afterwards  in  this  village.  After  leaving  the 
latter  meeting-house,  the  town  held  its  meetings  for  a  few 
years  in  Mr.  Abraham  Capen's  hall.  Then,  in  1842,  it 
built  and  began  to  occupy  its  Town  House  on  Pleasant 
Street,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1848.  From  that 
time  it  rented  the  hall  known  as  Chemung  Hall,  of  the 
First  Parish  meeting-house,  which  had  recently  been 
reconstructed  with  two  stories,  the  upper  being  reserved 
for  worship.  From  1870  the  town  rented  Mr.  Atwood's 
hall,  until  its  destruction  by  fire  in  February,  1880. 

A  town  hall  as  a  place  for  the  discussion  of  public 
questions  is  distinctively  an  institution  of  the  English- 
speaking  race.  It  can  exist  only  in  countries  where 
freedom  of  speech  is  a  traditional  right,  uncontrolled  by  a 
censorship  or  police  supervision.  The  Hotel  de  Ville  in 
Paris,  beautiful  in  architecture,  is  not  like  Faneuil  Hall  in 


256  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

Boston  or  Exeter  Hall  in  London,  where  philanthropists 
and  statesmen,  agitators  and  reformers,  may  treat  without 
reserve  all  questions  of  human  concern.  The  habit  of  our 
people  draws  them  to  the  town  hall  whenever  their  hearts 
are  stirred  by  some  pervading  thought  or  impulse.  Let  it 
be  a  question  of  war  or  peace,  —  an  arming  for  national 
defence,  the  support  of  authority  in  the  maintenance  of 
law  and  government,  the  reformation  of  morals,  the  dis- 
cussion of  State  and  national  policies,  the  death  of  a  states- 
man honored  for  his  private  virtues  and  public  services, 
the  commemoration  of  historic  events,  —  at  all  such  times 
our  people,  moved  by  a  common  inspiration,  throng  to 
public  centres  like  this. 

An  ancient  town  marks  a  period  in  its  career  when,  as 
to-day,  it  opens  its  house  for  public  use.  We  cannot  on 
this  occasion  overlook  the  fact  that  a  New  England  town 
is  a  body  distinctive  in  character  and  history,  quite  unlike, 
in  its  methods  and  functions,  the  municipal  organizations 
which  prevail  elsewhere.  It  is  not  like  a  French  commune, 
with  its  mayor  sent  from  Paris,  and  all  its  acts  subject  to 
central  revision.  It  is  the  unit  in  our  system  of  self-govern- 
ment* it  is  a  commonwealth,  subject  indeed  to  general 
laws,  but,  when  acting  within  its  sphere  and  under  the  law, 
exercising  a  discretion  quite  independent  of  control.  The 
voters  do  not,  as  in  other  municipalities,  elect  a  few  officers, 
—  aldermen  or  supervisors, —  and  thereby  discharge  them- 
selves from  responsibility  in  matters  of  municipal  inter- 
est; but  they  retain  their  power  over  the  public  business. 
Here,  under  a  moderator  chosen  by  yourselves,  you  fill  by 
ballot  or  voice  a  long  catalogue  of  offices ;  and  at  the  same 
or  at  a  later  meeting  you  deliberate  on  the  opening  of  new 
and  the  repair  of  existing  highways,  the  support  of  schools, 
provision  for  paupers,  protection  against  fire,  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  police,  the  payment  of  the  town  debt,  the 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 


257 


negotiation  of  loans, —  in  short,  on  all  the  matters  of  gov- 
ernment, except  the  post-office,  which  are  immediately  and 
constantly  present  in  your  daily  life.  On  each  question 
every  citizen  may  speak;  and  if  he  speaks  soberly  and 
wisely,  he  is  sure  to  be  heard.  The  final  decision  is  made 
by  the  majority, —  men  being  counted  as  men,  irrespective 
of  their  condition  or  of  their  contributions  to  the  general 
revenue. 

In  seasons  of  public  peril  the  town  has  exceptional  du- 
ties. It  supplies,  as  in  our  Civil  War,  its  quota  on  suc- 
cessive calls  for  troops ;  and  sometimes  —  less  now  than 
formerly  —  it  declares  its  opinion  on  State  and  national 
questions.  In  the  Revolution  the  town  was  a  most  im- 
portant institution.  It  preserved  order  where  otherwise 
there  would  have  been  anarchy,  as  one  government  dis- 
placed another.  It  raised  men,  paid  bounties,  and  by  care- 
ful enumeration  and  inspection  saw  to  it  that  each  citizen 
did  his  duty  to  his  country.  It  gave  to  its  representa- 
tive minute  instructions  before  he  entered  on  his  office  ; 
and  sometimes  after  his  term  had  ended,  it  appointed  a 
committee  to  inquire  into  his  conduct, —  a  scrutiny  which 
some  legislators  nowadays  might  find  it  difficult  to  bear. 
Again  and  again  it  declared  the  popular  will  on  the  issues 
with  the  mother  country,  sometimes  in  resolves  of  great 
length  and  elaboration.  These  formal  expressions  of 
opinion  were  so  much  respected,  that,  in  May,  1776,  the 
Massachusetts  Assembly  advised  the  people  to  instruct 
their  representatives  on  the  question  of  Independence, — 
that  body  hesitating  to  take  the  eventful  step  without  first 
consulting  the  source  of  political  power.  The  leadership 
of  Massachusetts  in  the  Revolution  is  largely  due  to  her 
peculiar  municipal  system,  which  quickened  the  sense  of 
civil  rights,  and  facilitated  united  action  for  the  common 
defence. 

17 


258  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

The  town  chooses  a  list  of  officers,  perhaps  exceeding 
fifty.  Few  are  the  citizens  who  lack  the  capacity,  or  fail  at 
some  time  to  have  the  opportunity,  to  fill  some  of  these 
trusts,  and  to  acquire  the  training  involved  in  their  admin- 
istration. The  office  may  not  have  a  high-sounding  title ; 
the  aspirant  for  popular  favor  may  treat  it  with  contempt : 
but  the  field-driver,  the  pound-keeper,  the  fence-viewer, 
and  the  constable  each  represents  the  dignity  and  power 
of  the  State ;  and  he  will  in  the  discharge  of  his  functions 
gain  a  better  knowledge  of  the  sphere  and  duties  of  an 
American  citizen.  At  the  head  of  the  list  of  municipal  offi- 
cers are  the  selectmen,  often  chosen  also  to  be  assessors  of 
taxes  and  overseers  of  the  poor.  The  people  have  at  all 
times  shown  in  the  election  of  these  officers  an  unusual  care 
and  sense  of  responsibility.  The  town  selectmen  of  any 
year  for  the  whole  State  would  show  an  assembly  most 
remarkable  for  integrity,  steady  public  spirit,  solid  judg- 
ment, and  capacity  for  affairs.  These  officers  in  a  town 
for  the  successive  periods  of  its  history  —  bating  occa- 
sional mistakes,  which  are  always  to  be  expected  under 
any  system  of  appointment  —  will  be  found  in  the  general 
result  to  be  truly  its  select  men.  The  long  succession  of 
just  and  honorable  men  who  have  served  you  in  this 
capacity  warrants  this  statement. 

The  habit  of  local  self-government  has  become  so  much 
a  second  nature  with  our  people,  that  if  State  and  na- 
tional authority  were  swept  away  in  some  revolutionary 
storm,  the  towns  could  meet  at  once  in  an  orderly  way, 
draft  a  body  of  laws,  and  raise  a  police  and  military  force 
to  suppress  violence  within  and  repel  aggression  from 
without.  There  is  in  such  a  habit  as  this,  descending 
from  ancestors  and  practised  from  year  to  year,  a  develop- 
ment of  the  civic  spirit  and  a  training  in  the  common 
duties  of  citizenship  which  are  worth  more  to  the  plain 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  259 

man  than  a  painful  study  of  all  that  wise  men  have  written 
on  society  and  government.  The  distinguished  French- 
man, De  Tocqueville,  during  his  visit  to  this  country  half 
a  century  ago,  found  in  the  New  England  town  the  best 
training-school  of  citizens.  He  says  :  — 

"  The  native  of  New  England  is  attached  to  his  township 
because  it  is  independent  and  free ;  his  co-operation  in  its  affairs 
insures  his  attachment  to  its  interests ;  the  well-being  it  affords 
him  secures  his  affection ;  and  its  welfare  is  the  aim  of  his  ambi- 
tion and  of  his  future  exertions.  He  takes  a  part  in  every  occur- 
rence in  the  place ;  he  practises  the  art  of  government  in  the 
small  sphere  within  his  reach ;  he  accustoms  himself  to  those 
forms  without  which  liberty  can  only  advance  by  revolutions ;  he 
imbibes  their  spirit ;  he  acquires  a  taste  for  order,  comprehends 
the  balance  of  powers,  and  collects  clear,  practical  notions  on  the 
nature  of  his  duties  and  the  extent  of  his  rights." 

You  would  be  wearied  if  I  should  spread  before  you  in 
detail  at  this  time  the  ancient  annals  of  the  town,  or  the 
statistical  tables  of  its  industries  at  different  periods.  The 
occasion,  however,  requires  a  glance  at  the  prominent 
events  of  its  history,  —  the  milestones  on  the  highway  of 
progress  which  its  generations  have  traversed.  I  may, 
however,  in  passing,  express  the  hope  that  some  one  of 
your  citizens  gifted  with  a  taste  for  antiquarian  research 
like  that  of  Mr.  Huntoon  of  Canton,1  will  be  tempted  be- 
fore long  to  explore  faithfully  the  old  records,  collate 
scattered  manuscripts,  study  the  topography  of  roads 
and  farms,  trace  the  development  of  manufactures,  give 
brief  biographies  of  prominent  citizens,  and  put  the  result 
in  a  compact  and  intelligible  shape,  to  be  printed  at  the 
town's  expense  for  the  advantage  of  this  generation  and 

1  D.  T.  V.  Huntoon's  "  History  of  Canton,"  a  part  of  the  ancient  Stough- 
ton,  was  published  in  1893,  after  the  author's  death. 


26O  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

of  posterity.  There  are  trustworthy  traditions  which  are 
growing  dimmer  every  day;  there  are  old  men  living,  who 
connect  us  with  the  early  part  of  this  century,  —  and  soon 
it  will  be  impossible  to  do  what  can  now  be  well  and 
easily  done. 

Stoughton  lies  at  the  sources  of  the  Neponset  and  Taun- 
ton  rivers,  at  a  point  where  the  waters  divide  to  go  north- 
ward to  Massachusetts  Bay,  or  southward  to  Narragansett 
Bay.  It  was  formerly  a  border  town  of  Suffolk  County, 
as  it  has  been  of  Norfolk  since  1793.  It  lies  generally  as 
a  plateau  with  moderate  elevations,  its  highest  point  being 
"  the  Pinnacle,"  where,  it  is  said,  a  glimpse  of  the  sea  may 
be  obtained.  It  has  no  lofty  heights  like  the  Blue  Hills 
to  the  north  and  Moose  Hill  to  the  west,  and  no  large 
sheets  of  natural  water  like  the  Ponkapoag  or  Massapoag 
ponds.  Its  chief  water-power  is  found  in  its  northwestern 
district,  where  the  cotton  manufacture  was  established  at 
an  early  day.  The  forests  still  cover  a  large  portion  of  its 
territory;  its  cleared  tracts,  except  in  favored  spots,  are 
not  fertile ;  and  the  rocks  and  bowlders  on  its  surface  have 
made  cultivation  difficult.  Certainly,  the  husbandman  who 
has  here  wrung  a  profit  from  the  soil  has  fairly  earned  it. 
Whatever  has  been  done  to  subdue  Nature  and  accumu- 
late wealth  upon  its  farms  has  been  accomplished  by  the 
sturdy  qualities  of  its  people,  and  by  the  perseverance 
and  thrift  inherited  from  the  fathers  of  the  town. 

The  ancient  town  of  Dorchester  acquired  in  1637  the 
land  "  lying  beyond  the  Blue  Hills"  and  extending  to  the 
line  of  Plymouth  Colony.  This  unwieldy  territory  was 
from  time  to  time  severed  into  parts.  In  1726  Stoughton 
—  then  comprehending  what  is  now  Canton  and  Sharon, 
a  considerable  part  of  Foxborough,  and  a  fraction  of 
Dedham  —  was  incorporated.  The  town  was  named  in 
honor  of  William  Stoughton,  —  a  native  of  Dorchester,  a 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  261 

graduate  of  Harvard  College,  afterwards  a  student  at  the 
University  of  Oxford;  beginning  his  career  as  a  clergy- 
man, and  preaching  with  favor  both  in  England  and 
America ;  later  in  life  devoted  to  public  affairs,  holding 
high  judicial  offices  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  first  lieuten- 
ant-governor under  the  charter  of  William  and  Mary,  an 
appointment  which  he  continued  to  hold  until  his  death. 
He  is  described  by  an  old  account  as  "  a  person  of  emi- 
nent qualifications,  honorable  extract,  liberal  education, 
and  singular  piety."  He  was,  indeed,  a  friend  of  popular 
education  and  of  academic  learning,  as  his  gift  of  land  for 
the  support  of  schools  in  Dorchester  and  of  Stoughton 
Hall  to  Harvard  College  bears  witness.  Twenty-five  years 
after  his  death  he  was  thought  worthy  to  confer  a  name 
on  the  new  town  created  from  the  territory  of  the  older 
town,  which  had  been  the  place  of  his  birth  and  death. 
It  is  well  to  recall  that  the  incorporating  statute  required 
the  new  town  within  twelve  months  "  to  procure  and  settle 
a  learned,  orthodox  minister,  of  good  conversation,  and 
make  provision  for  his  comfortable  and  honorable  sup- 
port; and  likewise  to  provide  a  schoolmaster  to  instruct 
their  youth  in  writing  and  reading."  Thus  did  Massa- 
chusetts, as  she  established  new  towns,  build  them  on 
enduring  foundations. 

Taking  the  second  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century 
as  the  period  in  which  Stoughton  was  settled,  we  may 
allow  a  moment's  outlook  on  the  world  outside.  The 
power  of  the  Indian  tribes  had  been  finally  broken  in  King 
Philip's  War,  and  they  no  longer  threatened  danger  to 
settlements  in  this  region.  The  colonies  were  advancing 
in  population  and  trade,  and  the  sentiment  of  union  for 
the  common  safety  was  drawing  them  more  closely 
together.  New  England  militia-men,  chiefly  of  Massachu- 
setts, achieved  a  daring  exploit  in  the  capture  of  Louis- 


262  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

burg,  — which  was,  however,  soon  after  restored  to  France 
by  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  final  struggle  be- 
tween England  and  France  for  dominion  on  this  continent 
was  approaching.  A  revival  of  religion,  so  marvellous 
that  the  world  took  note  of  it,  was  in  progress  along  the 
valley  of  the  Connecticut.  Jonathan  Edwards,  greatest 
of  American  theologians,  was  preaching  at  Northampton, 
and  insisting,  after  the  manner  of  Augustine  and  Calvin, 
on  a  deeper  spiritual  faith  and  experience.  The  Wesleys 
and  Whitefield  were  bearing  to  this  land  the  flame  of  re- 
ligious fervor  which  they  had  felt  and  kindled  in  their 
own.  It  was  during  this  period  that  the  great  leaders  of 
the  Revolution  were  born,  —  Washington,  John  Adams, 
Jefferson,  James  Otis,  and  Patrick  Henry. 

Europe  was  then  the  theatre  of  dynastic  wars  relating  to 
the  Spanish  and  Austrian  successions.  It  was  the  period 
of  Louis  XV.,  Frederick  the  Great,  Maria  Theresa,  and 
just  preceding  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Eight  years  before 
the  town's  incorporation  Charles  XII.  of  Sweden  fell  at 
the  siege  of  Frederickshall ;  and  only  one  year  before  its 
incorporation  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia  closed  his  re- 
markable career.  It  was  then  that  the  hopes  of  the 
Stuarts  were  extinguished  on  the  field  of  Culloden.  The 
"  Boston  News-Letter,"  established  a  few  years  before, 
may  with  its  brief  paragraphs  of  news  foreign  and  do- 
mestic have  occasionally  reached  the  town ;  but  our 
fathers,  as  they  were  struggling  for  a  livelihood,  cared 
little  for  these  dynasties  and  potentates  whose  conflicts 
and  ambitions  are  now  so  amply  spread  on  the  page  of 
history. 

Stoughton  was  from  time  to  time  reduced  in  area.  In 
1738  the  territory  west  of  the  Neponset  River  was  sur- 
rendered to  Dedham.  In  1765  Sharon  became  a  district 
under  the  name  of  Stoughtonham,  and  in  1775  a  town,  — 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 


263 


not,  however,  acquiring  its  present  name  till  1783.  In 
1778  Foxborough,  including  parts  of  Stoughton  and  other 
towns,  was  incorporated.  Canton  was  not  incorporated 
until  1797;  and  for  seventy  years,  —  a  period  which  in- 
cludes the  English  and  French  war  in  Canada,  and  the 
Revolution  which  made  the  United  States  independent  of 
Great  Britain,  —  the  history  of  these  two  sister  towns, 
Stoughton  and  Canton,  is  one.  Canton  being  the  first  to 
receive  settlers  who  passed  southward  from  Dorchester 
was  during  the  last  century  the  more  populous  of  the  two 
towns,  and  more  connected  with  historic  events.  There 
the  youth  of  Roger  Sherman,  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  was  passed  ;  there  lived  and  there  lies 
buried  Colonel  Richard  Gridley,  who  won  the  laurels  of 
war  and  patriotism  at  Louisburg,  Quebec,  and  Bunker 
Hill ;  there  lived  Rev.  Samuel  Dunbar,  who  by  prayer 
and  speech  inspired  the  people  to  deeds  of  heroism ;  and 
there  was  and  still  remains  the  old  Doty  Tavern,1  in  which 
Joseph  Warren  presented  to  the  County  convention  the 
famous  Suffolk  Resolves. 

Dorchester  and  Milton  were  well-peopled  towns  when 
this  region  was  a  wilderness.  According  to  Rev.  Dr. 
Edward  Richmond,  "  it  was  not  until  the  year  1716  that 
any  part  of  what  is  now  Stoughton  was  inhabited."  Civ- 
ilization had  planted  settlements  to  the  north  while  the 
Indians  were  yet  lingering  here,  memorials  of  whom  are 
found  in  the  arrow-heads  still,  or  until  recently,  turned  up 
on  your  farms.  Before  homes  were  established  on  the 
present  territory  of  Stoughton,  land-owners  living  in  Can- 
ton may  have  come  hither  in  the  morning  to  cultivate 
fields  they  had  reduced  to  tillage,  returning  at  night. 
The  cedars  of  Dorchester  swamp,  lying  a  mile  to  the 
south  of  this  village,  were  sought  earlier  than  1730  for 
1  Destroyed  by  fire  in  December,  1888. 


264  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

building  materials,  which  were  carried  to  the  head  of  navi- 
gation on  the  Neponset  at  Milton,  thence  to  be  shipped 
to  different  points  in  the  colony.  No  burials  here  are 
recorded  before  1743,  which  is  the  earliest  date  found  on 
a  tombstone  in  your  oldest  graveyard,  —  though  it  is 
not  unlikely  that  some  of  the  first  settlers  were  previously 
buried  in  the  ancient  place  of  sepulture  which  lies  in 
Canton. 

The  facilities  of  communication  from  place  to  place  in 
any  territory  mark  its  progress.  First  there  is  the  track 
of  the  wild  beast  and  the  trail  of  the  Indian ;  then  the 
bridle-path  or  cart-way  of  the  first  civilized  inhabitants, 
changing  its  course  with  every  obstruction,  and  laid  out 
to  suit  private  convenience ;  at  last  there  is  the  highway, 
broad  for  safety  and  the  meeting  of  travellers,  resting  on 
solid  foundations,  smooth  for  the  passage  of  wheels  or 
sledges,  open  to  all  who  seek  it  for  traffic  or  pleasure. 
Such  is  the  progress  from  savage  to  civilized  life. 

The  oldest  roads  —  those  leading  from  Boston  to  Ply- 
mouth, and  those  from  Boston  to  Taunton  and  Rhode 
Island  —  passed  to  the  east  or  west  of  the  town  as  now 
bounded,  or  touched  it  only  on  its  borders.  In  1700  the 
Selectmen  of  Dorchester  laid  out  the  highway  from  the 
Milton  line  to  Billings's  in  Sharon  ;  and  in  1733  Stoughton 
laid  out  a  road  from  this  highway  to  Dry  Pond,  which 
passed  along  the  westernmost  limit  of  the  present  town. 
This  important  highway  from  Dorchester  to  the  south 
was  known  under  various  names,  among  which  are  the 
Bay  Road,  or  the  road  to  Taunton,  Rehoboth,  or  Rhode 
Island.  The  centre  of  the  town  remained  isolated  until 
1720,  when  a  road  was  laid  out,  beginning  on  this  high- 
way at  Canton  Corner  and  running  to  the  Dorchester 
swamp,  —  then  the  objective  point  of  enterprise  for  this 
region,  —  and  following  to  some  extent  the  course  of 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  265 

an  earlier  cart-path,  which  may  however  have  deviated 
into  West  Stoughton  and  passed  near  the  sites  of  the  pre- 
sent factories  in  that  locality.  Thus  in  the  early  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century  the  heart  of  Stoughton,  as  now 
bounded,  wasvbrought  into  communication  with  the  metro- 
polis of  New  England.  Between  the  incorporation  of  the 
town  and  the  Revolution  many  of  the  roads  now  used  were 
projected  and  built. 

The  chief  matters  of  interest  in  town-meetings  at  this 
period,  as  appears  from  the  records,  were  the  laying  out 
of  roads  and  ways.  There  must  also  have  been  con- 
siderable activity  at  this  time  in  clearing  the  land,  build- 
ing houses,  and  settling  the  outlying  districts.  Thus  in 
1766  the  inhabitants  at  Dry  Pond,  bearing  names  now 
well  known  in  that  neighborhood,  were  allowed  their  share 
of  the  school  fund  for  a  separate  school.  The  map  of 
1794  shows  how  well  the  population  had  then  been  spread 
over  the  town.  The  result  was  that  in  1800,  when  the 
first  census  was  taken  after  the  separation  of  Canton  from 
the  old  town,  Stoughton,  as  thus  reduced,  had  a  popula- 
tion of  1020,  —  only  ninety  less  than  that  of  Canton, 
which  was  settled  at  an  earlier  date. 

With  a  people  religious  like  our  fathers,  there  would  be 
a  church  as  soon  as  there  was  a  settled  community. 
Here  in  1743,  in  what  is  now  Stoughton,  was  established 
a  precinct  or  parish ;  and  the  next  year  near  the  site  of 
the  present  First  Church  a  meeting-house  was  erected, 
which  after  being  occupied  sixty-three  years  was  displaced 
by  the  present  one.  Among  the  original  church-members 
are  the  representatives  of  families  who  have  been  conspic- 
uous during  the  history  of  the  town,  —  Talbots,  Adamses, 
Holmeses,  and  Monks.  Thus  in  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  had  grown  up  within  the  present 
limits  of  Stoughton  a  community  having  a  distinct  life  of 


266  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

its  own,  penetrated  and  intersected  by  roads,  and  conso 
lidated  as  a  parish.  This  stage  in  its  progress  just  ante- 
dates the  struggle  between  England  and  France  for  the 
empire  of  Canada,  and  precedes  by  only  a  quarter  of  a 
century  the  more  historic  struggle  which  severed  the 
American  colonies  from  their  British  connection. 

Some  passages  in  the  history  of  the  town  during  the 
Revolution,  as  indicative  of  its  spirit  at  the  time,  deserve 
mention.  It  was  then  in  population  the  nineteenth  town 
in  the  State.  In  its  formal  letter  of  March  I,  1773, 
responding  to  Boston,  Stoughton  asserted  with  manly 
emphasis  the  rights  of  the  people  as  men,  as  Christians, 
and  as  British  subjects  which  had  been  violated  by  arbi- 
trary power,  and  concurred  with  other  towns  in  uniting  in 
all  constitutional  methods  for  regaining  those  rights.  It 
was  represented  in  the  County  convention  which  passed 
at  Milton  September  9,  1774,  the  Suffolk  Resolves,  now 
regarded  as  the  earliest  authoritative  demand  for  Inde- 
pendence; and  one  of  its  representatives  in  that  body 
was  Jedidiah  Southworth.  The  same  month  it  elected 
delegates  to  the  Provincial  Congress,  and  in  January  fol- 
lowing chose  a  committee  of  inspection,  several  members 
of  which  are  represented  by  descendants  still  living  in  the 
town,  —  Peter  Talbot,  Jonathan  Capen,  Jedidiah  South- 
worth,  Robert  Swan,  and  Peter  Gay.  Six  weeks  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  the  town  voted,  "  That 
if  the  honorable  Continental  Congress  should  for  the 
safety  of  this  colony  declare  us  independent  of  the  king- 
dom of  Great  Britain,  we,  the  inhabitants,  will  solemnly 
engage  with  our  lives  and  fortunes  to  support  them  in  the 
measure."  In  May,  1778,  it  instructed  its  representative 
"to  vote  for  such  large  and  speedy  supplies  as  may  ap- 
pear necessary  to  enable  the  commander-in-chief  of  our 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  267 

armies  to  answer  the  expectations  of  his  country,  that  the 
war  if  possible  may  be  ended  the  ensuing  campaign,  with 
immortal  honor  to  himself  and  permanent  glory  and  se- 
curity to  the  United  States  of  America." 

The  town  was  as  prompt  and  faithful  in  its  action  as 
in  its  formal  resolutions.  On  April  19,  1775,  nine  com- 
panies, numbering  in  all  four  hundred  and  seventy 
men,  one  of  them  commanded  by  Captain  Peter  Talbot, 
marched  from  Stoughton  to  join  the  provincial  army. 
As  appears  from  its  records  and  tradition,  the  greater 
part  of  its  population  capable  of  bearing  arms  entered 
into  the  service.  They  shared  in  the  siege  of  Boston,  in 
the  defence  of  the  harbor  after  the  British  evacuation,  and 
at  more  distant  points,  —  in  Rhode  Island,  along  the 
Hudson  River,  at  Ticonderoga  and  Quebec. 

Some  of  that  patriot  band  who  a  century  ago  returned 
to  their  rugged  farms,  poor  in  estate  but  rich  in  the  grati- 
tude of  their  countrymen,  lived  to  our  time,  and  were 
known  by  many  in  this  audience.  I  name  the  last  three, 
—  Captain  Asa  Waters,  who  died  in  1845  a^  the  age  of 
eighty-five,  and  whose  widow  still  lives ;  Lemuel  Smith, 
who  died  in  1846  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven;  and  Benja- 
min Bisbee,  who  died  in  1849  at  the  age  almost  of  ninety, 
being  the  last  survivor  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution 
who  served  for  this  town.  I  dwell  for  a  moment  on  one 
of  these  as  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  of  the  time, — 
Lemuel  Smith,  my  father's  maternal  uncle,  with  whom  I 
lived  in  childhood  under  the  same  roof.  He  enlisted 
immediately  after  the  battle  of  Lexington,  when  only 
sixteen  years  of  age ;  helped  to  build  the  works  on  Dor- 
chester heights  which  compelled  the  evacuation  of  Boston, 
and  saw  the  British  fleet  as  it  sailed  out  of  the  harbor. 
He  served  in  1779  on  ^e  Hudson  River,  and  was  cap- 
tured in  February,  1780,  while  serving  on  the  debatable 


268  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON, 

territory  lying  between  the  British  post  at  New  York  and 
the  American  post  at  West  Point  and  the  Highlands.1 
While  he  was  a  prisoner  for  fourteen  months  in  the  Sugar 
House  at  New  York,  the  town  appointed  a  committee  to 
request  the  intervention  of  Washington  for  his  release,  and 
also  for  that  of  two  other  townsmen  who  were  fellow-cap- 
tives. Often  did  we  boys  listen,  pleading  again  and  again 
to  have  the  old  story  re-told,  as  he  narrated  the  skirmish 
in  which  one  man  was  killed  by  his  side;  the  winter 
march  to  New  York,  in  which  he  and  his  comrades,  mis- 
erably clad  and  almost  shoeless,  stained  the  snow  with 
their  bleeding  feet ;  the  sufferings  and  indignities  of  the 
Sugar  House,  equal  to  any  recounted  of  Andersonville; 
the  escape  (which  he  witnessed)  of  Paulding,  who  three 
days  later  was  the  captor  of  Andre  ;  his  exchange  and 
liberation  at  the  age  of  twenty-one ;  his  weary  journey, 
footsore,  penniless,  and  broken  in  health,  to  the  old  home- 
stead at  Dry  Pond,  where  he  began  his  life-long  contest 
with  Nature,  contesting  the  ground  inch  by  inch  with  bar 
and  pickaxe,  stilt  persevering  when  he  had  long  passed 
the  ordinary  limit  of  human  life.  How  well  I  recall  him  ! 
How  well  many  of  you  remember  him  !  — solid  in  person, 
Samson-like  in  strength;  modest  as  he  told  of  youth- 
ful exploits,  never  vaunting  his  courage,  but  to  the  end 
brave  and  knightly  in  soul ;  cheery  with  song  and  tale 
and  jest,  as  he  sat  by  the  fireside  or  trod  the  meadows ; 
thoughtful  as  the  shadows  lengthened;  bending  often 
before  his  Maker  in  solemn  prayer,  but  fearless  of  death 
as  of  mortal  man.  Such  he  was,  and  such  he  remains  in 
your  memory  and  mine.  Men  like  these,  of  humble  and 
unstoried  lives,  founded  our  nation,  —  worthy  progenitors 

1  Irving's  Washington,  iv.  8  (ed.  1857),  gives  an  account  of  a  skirmish 
in  Westchester  County,  probably  the  same  one  in  which  Lemuel  Smith 
was  taken  prisoner. 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  269 

of  those  who  have  in  our  time  consecrated  it  afresh  to 
Liberty  and  Union. 

The  ancient  history  of  a  New  England  town  usually 
centres  in  the  parish  church.  With  the  long  pastorates 
of  former  days  it  is  often  easy  to  connect  distant  periods 
by  the  lives  of  a  few  clergymen. 

Rev.  Jedidiah  Adams,  the  first  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Stoughton  as  now  bounded,  received  his  call  in  1745 ;  and 
he  remained  its  minister  until  his  death,  February  25,  1799, 
at  the  age  of  eighty-eight,  and  in  the  fifty-third  year  of  his 
pastorate.  The  house  which  he  built  and  lived  in  still 
stands,  the  property  and  residence  of  his  descendants. 
He  was  a  kinsman  of  John  Adams,  and  a  graduate  of 
Harvard  College.  He  bore  himself  well  during  his  long 
career,  leaving  at  its  end,  as  was  said  of  him  at  the  time, 
"  a  memory  too  precious  to  fall  into  oblivion."  Like  his 
contemporaries,  Rev.  Samuel  Dunbar  of  Canton  and  Rev. 
Jonathan  French  of  Andover,  he  maintained  zealously  the 
patriot  cause ;  and  his  fellow-citizens,  testifying  their  con- 
fidence in  his  patriotism  and  discretion,  chose  him  in 
1779  a  member  of  the  convention  which  was  to  meet  for 
the  purpose  of  forming  a  constitution  for  the  State.  A 
man  of  his  education,  connections,  and  knowledge  of  the 
world  must  have  rendered  great  service  in  diffusing  moral 
excellence,  good  breeding,  and  intelligence  throughout 
this  rustic  community,  removed  as  it  then  was  from  the 
centres  of  traffic  and  thought.  No  well-taught,  right- 
minded  minister  can  live  among  and  preach  to  such  a 
"people  for  half  a  century  without  largely  shaping  public 
opinion,  and  raising  the  standard  of  character. 

Rev.  Edward  Richmond,  D.  D.,  a  native  of  Middlebo- 
rough  and  a  graduate  of  Brown  University,  became  the 
colleague  of  Mr.  Adams  in  1792,  and  remained  pastor  of 


2/O  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

the  church  for  twenty-five  years.  Resigning  in  1817,  he 
settled  shortly  after  in  Dorchester,  where  he  continued  as  a 
pastor  for  fifteen  years.  He  died  in  retirement  in  1842,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-five.  He  was  a  man  of  culture,  of  a  sen- 
sitive temperament,  kindly  and  helpful  to  aspiring  young 
men.  This  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  knew  him  well, 
some  of  whom  survive.  Like  men  of  his  type  and  associa- 
tions, he  was  an  earnest  Federalist;  and  being  disposed  to 
assert  in  the  pulpit  his  political  views,  he  thus  came  in 
collision  with  the  adverse  sentiment  about  him.  He  was  a 
favorite  preacher  at  ordinations  and  on  special  occasions. 
His  sermons  were  carefully  prepared,  and,  with  their  flow- 
ing and  measured  periods,  read  like  essays. 

Rev.  Ebenezer  Gay,  a  native  of  Walpole  and  graduate 
of  Harvard  College,  was  the  immediate  successor  of  Dr. 
Richmond.  At  the  close  of  his  pastorate  of  four  years 
the  church  was  divided  in  doctrine,  the  Trinitarians  with- 
drawing to  form  a  new  society.  After  his  resignation 
in  1822  he  lived  many  years  in  Bridgewater,  serving  as  a 
pastor  during  a  part  of  the  time.  Recently  he  removed 
to  Tompkins  Cove,  Rockland  County,  New  York,  where 
he  still  lives  with  his  son.  This  veteran  divine,  now  in  his 
ninetieth  year,  who  closed  his  ministry  here  nearly  sixty 
years  ago,  retains  his  intellectual  vigor,  reads  without 
spectacles,  conducts  his  correspondence  with  his  own 
hand,  and  has  within  a  year  preached  without  notes.1  I 
have  here  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  me  a  few  days  ago. 

Thus  the  lives  of  three  clergymen  —  Mr.  Adams,  the 
original  pastor;  Dr.  Richmond,  his  colleague  ;  and  Mr. 
Gay,  the  successor  of  Dr.  Richmond — span  the  entire 
period  during  which  this  town  as  now  limited  has  been  a 
settled  community. 

1  Mr.  Gay  was  born  October  11,  1792,  and  died  March  23,  1886.  His 
burial-place  is  in  Bridgewater. 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON.  271 

Two  other  pastorates,  which  come  nearer  to  the  present 
generation,  deserve  mention  as  a  part  of  the  history  of  the 
town.  Rev.  Calvin  Park,  D.D.,  was  the  pastor  of  the 
Trinitarian  Congregational  Church  from  1826  to  1840, 
and  continued  to  live  here  until  his  death  in  1847,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-three.  He  brought  to  his  people  a  mature 
culture  acquired  in  twenty-five  years'  service  as  a  pro- 
fessor in  Brown  University,  most  of  the  time  holding  the 
chair  of  moral  philosophy  and  metaphysics.  In  theology 
he  was  a  follower  of  Edwards  and  Emmons.  Many  of 
you  will  recall  his  erect  person  and  still,  small  voice.  It 
is  fitting  to  add  that  he  was  the  father  of  a  son  more  cele- 
brated than  himself,  —  Professor  Edwards  A.  Park,  the 
theologian. 

Rev.  Massena  B.  Ballou  became  in  1831  the  pastor  of 
the  Universalist  Church"  which  still  continues  to  worship 
in  the  old  parish  meeting-house.  Resigning  in  1853,  he 
yet  lives  among  you,  respected  by  his  fellow-citizens ;  and, 
present  with  us  to-day,  he  enjoys  at  the  age  of  eighty-one 
unimpaired  intellectual  vigor.1  Only  thirty-two  years 
divide  the  beginning  of  his  pastorate  from  the  close  of 
that  of  Mr.  Adams,  the  earliest  Christian  teacher  of  this 
neighborhood. 

The  industry  of  the  town,  till  about  sixty-five  years  ago, 
was  entirely  agricultural.  The  second  war  with  Great 
Britain  developed  manufactures  here  as  well  as  elsewhere 
in  New  England.  In  1815  Hezekiah  Gay  and  other  cor- 
porators obtained  a  charter  for  a  company,  with  a  capital 
of  seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  authorized  to  engage  in 
cotton  and  woollen  manufacture,  —  an  enterprise  which 
still  flourishes  on  the  sites  of  ancient  sawmills  in  the  north- 
western part  of  the  town.  About  the  same  period  several 
1  Mr.  Ballou  died  December  10,  1890,  at  the  age  of  ninety. 


2/2  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

persons,  particularly  in  the  centre  and  eastern  parts  of 
the  town,  began  the  manufacture  of  boots  and  shoes,  — 
an  industry  which  developed  rapidly  a  few  years  later, 
and  which  now  realizes  an  annual  product  exceeding  one 
million  dollars  in  value.  This  is  the  distinctive  industry 
of  the  town,  which  has  built  up  its  largest  villages  and 
brought  to  it  railway  facilities.  Its  population  under  this 
stimulus  grew  rapidly  from  1830,  when  it  was  1591,  rising 
in  1840  to  2142,  in  1850  to  3494,  in  1860  to  4830,  —  which 
is  substantially  the  present  number.1 

There  are  some  passages  in  the  history  of  the  town 
significant  of  a  vigorous  sentiment  of  nationality  pervad- 
ing its  people  at  an  early  day.  Thus  in  January,  1781, 
it  voted,  "  We  apprehend  that  for  particular  States  to 
make  or  repeal  any  law  contrary  to  the  resolution  of 
Congress  tends  to  break  the  Union ;  "  and  on  April  1 1  of 
the  same  year  it  instructed  its  representatives  as  follows: 
"  You  are  instructed  to  be  very  cautious  in  giving  your 
vote  or  votes  for  any  law  or  resolve  until  you  are  well 
informed  that  they  are  not  repugnant  to  the  authority  of 
Congress."  This  was  the  period,  the  early  part  of  1781, 
when  the  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania  troops  were 
in  mutiny,  and  Washington  was  apprehensive  of  disas- 
trous consequences  to  result  from  the  weakness  of  the 
central  authority,  and  was  pleading  with  the  States  to 
invest  Congress  with  adequate  powers.  Thus  in  an  hour 
of  peril  this  town  was  in  full  sympathy  with  the  com- 
mander-in-chief.  The  Stoughton  of  1781  and  the  Stough- 
ton  of  1 86 1,  divided  by  an  interval  of  eighty  years,  were 
one  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  and  the  authority 
of  Congress. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  on  the  trial  of  the  British  sol- 
1  Its  population  in  1895  was  5272. 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 


273 


diers  engaged  in  the  Boston  massacre  in  1770,  one  of  the 
jurors,  Consider  Atherton,  was  from  Stoughton.  The  ac- 
cused were  defended  by  John  Adams  and  Josiah  Quincy. 
Jr.,  at  great  risk  to  themselves  of  loss  of  popular  favor. 
Notwithstanding  the  public  clamor  and  demand  for  ven- 
geance, the  jury  was  true  to  its  oath;  and,  carefully  and 
impartially  weighing  the  evidence,  convicted  only  two  of 
the  accused  of  manslaughter,  and  acquitted  six  altogether. 
Its  conduct  in  this  memorable  trial  inspired  confidence 
in  the  American  character,  at  a  period  when  as  a  people 
we  were  first  challenging  the  attention  of  mankind;  and 
it  is  a  grateful  recollection  that  one  of  your  well-known 
names  was  on  the  panel. 

The  town  has  always  supported  popular  rights.  In 
1778  it  resolved  that  the  Legislature  ought  not  to  enact 
a  plan  of  government,  and  that  the  proposed  State  consti- 
tution should  not  take  effect  without  a  popular  vote ;  and 
a  year  later  it  adopted  a  vote  of  like  tenor  in  the  form  of 
instructions  to  its  representative.  It  pressed  as  decisive 
objections  to  the  constitution  whose  adoption  was  then 
pending,  that  it  omitted  a  bill  of  rights  and  required  a 
two-thirds  vote  of  the  people  for  its  amendment.  In  1787 
and  1788  it  insisted,  in  formal  votes,  that  the  privilege  of 
habeas  corpus  and  the  liberty  of  the  press  should  not  be 
infringed.  Divers  votes  in  1786  and  1787  were  emphatic 
in  favor  of  the  redress  of  the  grievances  which  were  com- 
plained of  by  the  insurgents  of  western  Massachusetts,  led 
by  Daniel  Shays,  —  such  as  high  salaries,  particularly  the 
governor's  (which  they  ask  him  as  an  act  of  grace  to  re- 
mit in  part),  the  costs  of  litigation  and  the  extortion  of 
lawyers,  and  proposing  boards  of  arbitration  and  courts 
in  each  town  as  substitutes  for  the  courts  of  common  pleas 
and  quarter  sessions.  They  call  for  the  removal  of  the 
Legislature  from  Boston,  earnestly  insist  that  "  the  order 

18 


274  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

of  lawyers  as  they  now  practise  be  entirely  annihilated," 
and  show  a  repugnance  to  the  strong  measures  adopted 
for  the  suppression  of  the  disorders.  These  votes  of  1786 
and  1787  reveal  an  impatience  with  government  and  a  dis- 
content with  existing  social  and  industrial  conditions.  It 
is  not  strange  that  a  people  hard-pressed  by  poverty  and 
debt,  as  were  our  fathers  between  the  Revolutionary  War 
and  the  adoption  of  the  national  Constitution,  should  have 
shown  little  discrimination  in  their  treatment  of  rulers,  and 
have  thought  ill  of  those  whom  they  deemed  exempt  from 
the  general  calamity. 

Captain  Jedidiah  Southworth,  one  of  the  two  delegates 
from  Stoughton  in  the  Massachusetts  Convention  which 
acted  on  the  national  Constitution,  voted  and  spoke 
against  its  adoption, —  probably  for  the  reasons  which 
influenced  Elbridge  Gerry,  who  thought  it  failed  to  give 
adequate  securities  to  popular  rights.  His  effort  was  one 
of  the  last  made  in  the  convention,  and  the  report  says 
that  "  the  worthy  gentleman  from  indisposition  of  body 
was  unable  to  complete  his  speech." 

The  town  was  decidedly  Republican,  or  anti-Federal, 
during  the  period  when  those  names  were  borne  by  politi- 
cal parties ;  indeed,  during  its  history  it  has  sustained  the 
party  which  at  the  time  was  believed  to  be  most  earnestly 
devoted  to  popular  rights.  In  no  town  of  the  State  has 
there  been  a  greater  equality  of  condition  or  a  stronger 
sentiment  for  equality  of  rights  than  in  Stoughton.  No 
one  individual  or  family,  no  corporation  or  aggregated 
capital,  has  ever  wielded  a  controlling  influence  over  its 
religion,  politics,  or  public  opinion.  Whoever  on  account 
of  wealth  or  birth  has  thought  to  set  himself  above  his 
neighbors  has  never  found  favor  here.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  this  democratic  instinct  has  sometimes 
found  extravagant  expression,  —  as  when  Selfridge's  effigy 


THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 


275 


was  set  up  under  circumstances  especially  annoying  to 
Dr.  Richmond;  or  when,  within  the  memory  of  men  now 
.in  middle  life,  the  town  voted  to  divide  the  surplus  reve- 
nue per  capita  among  the  inhabitants. 

The  record  of  Stoughton  on  questions  involving  human 
rights  has  always  been  an  honorable  one.  In  1848  it  was 
one  of  the  few  towns  in  this  part  of  the  State  to  give  a  con- 
siderable plurality  of  votes  to  the  Presidential  candidate 
pledged  to  resist  the  further  extension  of  the  slave  em- 
pire. Two  years  later  it  elected  a  representative,  Mr. 
Albert  Johnson,  by  whose  decisive  vote  Charles  Sumner 
was  placed  in  the  national  Senate,  —  a  vote  without  which 
that  statesman  would  not  then,  or  perhaps  ever,  have 
entered  on  his  public  career.  What  the  town  did  during 
the  Civil  War;  with  what  steadiness  it  supported  State 
and  national  authority ;  with  what  alacrity  it  filled  succes- 
sive calls  for  troops;  what  service  was  rendered  by  its 
enlisted  men  during  memorable  campaigns,  the  marches, 
battles,  sufferings,  captivities  in  which  they  shared,  —  all 
these  are  too  fresh  in  your  recollection  to  need  recital 
here,  and  would  alone  more  than  fill  the  measure  of  a 
single  discourse. 

The  early  settlers  of  Stoughton  were  men  of  good  stock, 
and  the  old  families  have  held  their  own  against  the  waves 
of  immigration  which  manufactures  have  brought  hither. 
They  came  early,  and  here  they  are  still,  —  the  Talbots, 
Southworths,  Adamses,  Athertons,  Capens,  Gays,  Waleses, 
Drakes,  Monks,  Battleses,  and  Porters,  as  well  as  a  well- 
defined  branch  of  the  widespread  family  of  Smiths.  At 
all  periods  you  have  had,  if  not  eminent  citizens,  many 
stalwart  men,  healthy  in  body  and  in  mind,  thrifty,  ener- 
getic, and  public-spirited.  Among  these  were  Dr.  Peter 
Adams,  a  good  physician,  and  son  of  the  original  pastor; 


276  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

Dr.  Simeon  Tucker,  always  the  friend  of  education  and 
temperance;  Nathan  Drake,  the  elder,  who  carried  into 
age  the  spirit  of  youth,  and  left  sons  blameless  in  their 
lives  and  faithful  in  the  administration  of  trusts  here  and 
elsewhere ;  Joel  Talbot,  with  much  of  adamant  in  his  na- 
ture, but  severely  honest  in  the  discharge  of  all  fiduciary 
responsibilities;  his  kinsman  Jabez  Talbot,  now  your 
oldest  citizen,  whose  age,  prolonged  to  ninety-three, 
certifies  to  a  well-ordered  youth  and  a  temperate  life; 
Nathaniel  Morton,  who  at  an  early  day  opened  streets 
and  multiplied  houses  in  this  village ;  Lucius  Clapp, 
whose  liberal  donation  to  the  public  library  entitles  him  to 
lasting  gratitude ;  the  Hodgeses,  Southworths,  Littlefields, 
Blanchards,  Swans,  Hills,  Waleses,  Reynoldses,  Packards, 
Belchers,  Phinneys,  who  dealt  honorably  with  the  artisans 
in  their  service  and  developed  your  industry.  To  the  list 
of  worthy  citizens  you  must  allow  me  to  add  that  of  one 
nearest  to  me,  —  Colonel  Jesse  Pierce,  who  for  many 
years  served  you  as  representative  in  the  Legislature  and 
as  chairman  of  the  Board  of  Selectmen,  the  first  select- 
man of  the  town  who  refused  to  license  the  sale  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  still  gratefully  remembered  as  teacher, 
friend,  and  adviser.  Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  these 
and  of  others,  among  the  living  and  among  the  dead,  who 
laid  the  foundations  of  your  prosperity  and  made  this 
people  what  it  is.  Their  labors  are  your  inheritance  ;  and 
th'eir  character  and  deeds  are  present  with  you  in  memory 
or  tradition. 

It  is  time  that  another  voice  than  mine  should  be  heard 
here.  It  was  fitting  that  the  fathers  of  the  town  —  they 
who  cleared  its  fields,  planted  its  industries,  and  main- 
tained their  own  and  their  children's  liberties  —  should 
be  commemorated  to-day.  They  have  come  before  us, 


THE   TOWN  OF   STOUGHTON. 


277 


clad  in  homespun,  trudging  along  their  rugged  roads, 
felling  primeval  forests,  tilling  the  earth  with  their  clumsy 
implements,  raising  in  patches  their  Indian  corn,  living 
themselves  and  rearing  their  children  without  the  luxu- 
ries, hardly  with  the  necessaries,  of  life ;  trading  chiefly  in 
barter  when  they  had  anything  to  sell  or  something  to  buy 
with,  their  exchanges  interrupted  by  a  currency  worthless 
or  distrusted,  —  but  with  all  this  patient,  God-fearing, 
jealous  of  their  own  honor  and  rights,  mindful  always  of 
posterity,  ready  at  all  times  to  shoulder  their  flint-lock 
muskets  for  the  common  defence.  You  i^joice  in  com- 
forts and  opportunities  which  were  not  theirs,  and  your 
higher  privileges  are  the  measure  of  your  duties.  This 
is  not  now  a  wilderness,  with  here  and  there  an  Indian 
hut  or  the  struggling  cabins  of  white  men,  penetrated  only 
by  bridle  or  cart  paths,  yielding  but  a  scanty  subsistence, 
with  no  schools  or  altars  of  religion.  Here  are  well- 
ordered  roads,  comfortable  homes,  populous  villages,  thriv- 
ing industries,  churches,  schoolhouses,  a  public  library, 
and  at  last  this  noble  structure,  with  its  spacious  hall,  its 
library  room,  its  conveniences  for  municipal  administra- 
tion and  social  festivities,  solidly  built  and  tastefully 
embellished. 

Citizens  of  Stoughton  !  while  this  day  is  peculiarly  your 
own,  you  have  with  a  generous  welcome  opened  your 
doors  to  others  who  gladly  come  to  give  you  their  con- 
gratulations. You  have  invited  one,  who  though  allied 
to  you  by  ancestral  ties,  and  born  and  passing  his  youth 
among  you,  is  not  now  your  fellow-citizen,  to  express  the 
significance  of  the  occasion.  The  Governor  is  here  to 
bear  witness  to  the  constant  interest  of  the  Commonwealth 
in  all  its  people  and  municipalities.  Various  officers  of 
the  State  and  county  are  in  attendance.  Neighboring 
towns  are  represented  by  their  selectmen  or  conspicuous 


2/8  THE   TOWN   OF   STOUGHTON. 

citizens.  Others,  sons  of  the  old  town,  bearing  your 
ancient  naraes,  who  elsewhere  in  public  or  private  life,  in 
high  civic  trusts,  in  business  or  professional  careers,  have 
done  honor  to  the  place  of  their  nativity,  are  here  to  tes- 
tify their  continued  solicitude  for  your  welfare.  You  and 
they  and  all  —  citizens  and  guests  —  now  unite  to  dedicate 
this  structure  to  the  great  uses  for  which  it  was  designed. 
Let  the  votes  here  to  be  given  be  always  for  liberty  and 
law  and  good  government !  Let  the  voices  here  to  be 
heard  speak  always  for  public  virtue  and  knowledge,  for 
justice  and  charity !  Henceforth  from  this  shrine,  sacred 
to  patriotism  and  humanity,  may  there  go  forth  influences 
which  shall  be  of  perpetual  advantage  to  this  people,  to 
our  Commonwealth,  and  to  our  Country ! 


THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT. 


279 


XI. 


AT  the  annual  dinner  of  the  New  England  Society  in  the  city  of 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  December  21,  1886,  Mr.  Pierce  was  an  invited 
guest,  and  responded  to  the  toast,  "  The  Puritan  Spirit :  A  mighty 
Force  in  human  Progress."  Among  the  other  speakers  at  the 
dinner  were  General  Sherman,  Joseph  H.  Choate,  and  Judge  Noah 
Davis.  Hon.  John  Winslow,  a  fellow-student  with  Mr.  Pierce  at 
Brown  University  and  the  Harvard  Law  School,  presided,  and  in- 
troduced his  friend  in  these  words  :  — 

"  I  will  say  of  the  gentleman  who  is  to  respond  to  this  toast, 
though  he  may  not  be  known  to  you  all  as  well  as  he  is  to  some  of 
us,  that  some  signal  honors  have  come  to  him.  If  it  were  not  for 
referring  to  personal  matters,  I  should  say  that  the  first  great  honor 
which  came  to  him  was  that  he  was  my  room-mate  at  Cambridge, 
thirty-six  years  ago,  and  behaved  pretty  well.  The  friendship  there 
formed  has  never  suffered  a  jar.  In  his  professional  life  he  has 
held  the  office  of  District  Attorney,  —  an  office,  you  know,  which 
in  some  parts  of  the  country,  including  this  part,  '  means  business.' 
But  the  district  in  which  our  friend  held  the  office  included 
Plymouth  Rock ;  and  so,  of  course,  you  will  naturally  infer  the 
district-attorney  business  was  rather  dull.  In  its  traditions  and 
influence,  Plymouth  Rock  is  a  district  attorney. 

"  But  another  honor  that  has  come  to  our  friend  —  and  I  think 
it  a  very  choice  one,  whatever  he  may  say  of  it  —  is,  that  that  great 
philanthropist  and  statesman,  Charles  Sumner,  in  his  last  will  and 
testament,  associated  him  with  the  poet  Longfellow  as  his  literary 
executor.  The  burden  of  that  office,  because  of  the  death  of 
Longfellow,  has  come  upon  our  friend.  How  ably,  capably,  and 
faithfully  he  has  performed  it  thus  far,  the  two  volumes  that  have 
been  published  attest.  It  is  with  special  pleasure  that  I  introduce 
the  Hon.  Edward  L.  Pierce,  of  Boston." 


280  THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT. 


THE  PURITAN  SPIRIT. 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  SOCIETY,  —  Your 
President's  kind  words  call  up  precious  memories  of  our 
school  days  at  Cambridge,  passed  in  "  the  quiet  and  still  air 
of  delightful  studies."  We  were  young  then,  —  I  younger 
than  he,  though  you  would  hardly  believe  it,  —  each 
with  less  solid  weight  than  we  now  have,  though  neither 
had  then  "  a  lean  and  hungry  look,"  and  with  hope  elevat- 
ing and  joy  brightening  the  crest  of  both.  Knowing,  as  I 
do,  the  roots  of  his  character,  I  have  watched  with  all  the 
interest  of  early  friendship  his  career  in  this  city  of  his 
adoption.  As  I  have  seen  him  in  the  chair  this  evening, 
I  have  been  reminded  how  sturdy  and  enduring  are  the 
Puritan  characteristics,  even  in  person.  I  once  remarked 
to  one  of  the  present  generation  of  the  Adamses,  how 
strikingly  he  and  his  brothers  resembled  his  father,  grand- 
father, and  great-grandfather  in  stature,  features,  and  bald- 
ness. "  Perhaps  so,"  he  replied ;  "  but,  after  all,  I  have 
only  one-eighth  of  my  grandfather  in  me."  Your  Presi- 
dent is,  I  believe,  only  collaterally  connected  with,  and 
also  removed  many  generations  from,  Colonel  John 
Winslow,  of  Marshfield,  who  with  a  sad  heart  removed  the 
Acadians ;  so  that,  instead  of  one-eighth,  he  may  not  have 
one-thousandth  part  of  that  provincial  officer's  blood  in 
him.  But  the  historian  of  "  Montcalm  and  Wolfe " 
describes  Colonel  Winslow  at  the  time  of  that  transaction 
as  fifty-three  years  of  age,  with  double  chin,  smooth  fore- 
head, arched  eyebrows,  round,  rubicund  face,  and  a  close- 
powdered  wig,  —  a  fair  description,  I  submit,  of  your 


THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT.  28 1 

President,  Judge  Winslow,  if  he  had  not  left  his  judicial 
appendage  at  home.  I  trust  I  do  not  anticipate  titles  for 
more  than  a  year. 

We  are  all  happy  to  be  at  a  New  England  dinner.  To 
most  of  you,  however,  it  is  a  greater  novelty  than  to  myself, 
for  I  sit  at  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  New  England 
dinners  during  a  year,  —  not  all,  indeed,  so  sumptuous  as 
this ;  for  if  they  were,  my  household  and  myself  would 
hardly  live  to  complete  the  annual  round. 

Your  President  has  mentioned  my  relations  to  the  late 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  the  friend  of  my  youth  and 
later  years.  It  is  interesting  to  recall  that  Mr.  Sumner's 
last  appearance  before  the  people,  his  last  public  words, 
except  brief  utterances  in  the  Senate,  were  at  the  New 
England  dinner  in  New  York,  a  few  weeks  before  his  death, 
where  he  was  in  company  with  General  Sherman  as  fellow- 
guest,  —  going,  as  he  said  at  the  time,  under  pressure  from 
his  friend  Mr.  Cowdin,  and  taking  the  only  holiday  he  had 
allowed  himself  in  a  long  public  service.  His  tribute  to 
the  Pilgrims  marks  the  end  of  his  career,  as  his  oration 
on  "The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,"  in  1845,  marks  its 
beginning. 

It  is  always  most  pleasant  to  me  to  find  myself  among 
the  New  En  glanders  of  New  York  ;  for  I  have  to  confess 
to  a  kind  of  feeling,  that  better  than  a  New  Englander  at 
home  is  a  New  Englander  transplanted.  The  strong  blood 
of  his  race  which  the  emigrant  carries  with  him  is  quick- 
ened by  the  larger  life  which  awaits  him  in  this  metropo- 
litan centre ;  and  more  than  those  left  behind,  he  values 
his  precious  birthright.  Is  it  not  a  truth  of  history,  that 
the  best  fruits  of  a  great  idea  are  often  yielded  elsewhere 
than  on  the  spot  where  the  idea  was  first  planted?  If  you 
visit  Eisleben  where  Luther  was  born  and  died,  you  will 


282  THE  PURITAN   SPIRIT. 

find,  as  I  found,  the  churches  on  Sunday,  even  the  one 
most  associated  with  his  memory,  almost  deserted,  while 
the  ale-houses  at  the  same  hour  are  crowded;  yet  the 
power  of  the  great  Reformer  still  sways  northern  Europe, 
and  is  an  enduring  fact  in  civilization.  You  need  not  seek 
modern  Geneva  —  that  miniature  of  Paris,  that  factory  of 
watches  and  music-boxes  —  to  study  the  fruit  of  Calvin's 
work  ;  for  while  you  will  see  there  a  statue  to  Rousseau, 
whose  dreams  and  confessions  might  have  been  spared 
without  serious  loss  to  mankind,  you  will  find  none  to 
the  man  who  as  thinker  and  magistrate  is  the  greatest 
in  her  history:  not  there,  but  rather  in  Scotland  and 
America,  will  you  find  the  immortal  stamp  of  his  mind  and 
character.  So  now,  when  so  many  of  our  New  England 
cities  and  popular  towns  are  passing  under  the  control  of 
crowds  who  have  no  connection,  by  blood  or  training  or 
ideas,  with  that  early  history  we  commemorate,  the  time 
may  not  be  far  off  when  you  will  have  to  seek  on  the  farms 
of  the  Western  Reserve  of  Ohio,  of  Michigan,  northern 
Illinois,  Missouri,  Minnesota,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  and  Kan- 
sas for  the  best  realization  of  the  Puritan  influence  and 
character. 

I  have  myself  trodden  with  a  traveller's  interest  the  lanes 
and  fields  of  Scrooby  and  Austerfield  associated  with 
Brewster  and  Bradford,  and  have  visited  in  Leyden  the 
house  where  Robinson  taught  his  flock,  and  the  cathedral 
opposite  where  he  was  buried  ;  but  I  cannot  confess  to  any 
new  inspiration  drawn  from  these  spots.  The  Puritan 
spirit  has  no  limitations  of  place ;  it  exists  wherever  there 
is  united  fear  of  God,  love  of  man,  stubborn  loyalty  to 
convictions,  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  the  readiness  to 
suffer,  and  if  need  be  to  die,  for  a  good  cause,  —  be  that 
cause  a  pure  faith,  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  the  preser- 
vation of  the  Union,  or  the  safety  of  society.  In  technical 


THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT.  283 

dogmas  there  was  little  of  the  Puritan  in  Channing,  Palfrey, 
Parker,  Mann,  Sumner,  and  Andrew ;  in  dress,  habits,  and 
nurture,  how  unlike  our  grim  forefathers  were  the  fair 
youths  whose  names  Harvard  has  carved  on  memorial 
slabs !  there  is  nothing  in  this  brilliant  scene  which  revives 
the  picture  of  the  men  with  wan  faces,  meagre  fare,  and 
Bible  speech,  whom  we  are  here  to  honor.  But,  neverthe- 
less, the  Puritan  spirit  has  survived  all  mingling  of  blood, 
all  changes  in  manners,  all  new  departures  in  theology,  all 
reconstructions  of  government.  It  has  survived  in  the 
martyrdoms  of  Torrey  and  Lovejoy  and  Brown ;  in  re- 
formers and  statesmen  who  have  broken  the  fetters  of  the 
slave ;  in  the  benefactors  of  schools  and  colleges  and 
noble  charities;  in  that  uncounted  host  of  men  of  New 
England  origin  or  nurture  who  have  stood  for  a  lofty 
ideal  of  duty  and  sacrifice ;  in  the  heroes  celebrated  and 
unknown  who  fought  for  the  cause  of  Liberty  and  Union. 
It  lives  also  in  us  if  we  do  our  part,  as  they  did  theirs, 
in  the  cause  of  good  government,  of  pure  administration, 
of  honest  money,  of  equal  laws  for  all  men  of  every  race 
within  our  borders,  Caucasian,  African,  or  Semitic.  To-day, 
among  whom,  outside  the  Quakers,  do  you  find  the  leaders 
in  the  cause  of  justice  to  the  Indian,  confronting  land- 
grabbers,  and —  hardest  of  all  to  bear  —  the  indifference 
and  sneers  of  even  Christian  people?  It  is  among  New 
England  men,  —  statesmen  like  Henry  L.  Dawes  in  the 
Senate,  and  citizens  like  William  H.  Lyon,  your  townsman, 
honored  member  and  officer  of  your  Society. 

Though  not  by  education  or  profession  a  Calvinist,  I 
have  a  profound  respect  for  the  body  of  believers  who 
bear  that  name.  If  they  have  contemplated  with  a  too 
lurid  imagination  the  depths  of  human  depravity,  they 
have  always  pointed  to  the  heights  which  human  nature 
might  attain.  With  all  the  Apollyons  of  human  sin  they 


284  THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT. 

have  ever  been  ready  to  grapple.     You  never  saw  a  Cal- 
vinist  who  was  a  pessimist  or  a  cynic. 

Mr.  President,  I  attempt  no  distinction  between  Pilgrims 
and  Puritans ;  between  the  colonies  of  Plymouth  and 
Massachusetts  Bay;  between  Carver  and  Brewster  and 
Bradford  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Winthrops  on  the 
other,  —  both  happily  united  before  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  all  comprehended  in  our  filial  gratitude 
and  affection.  Looking  at  them  as  men  of  their  time,  I 
have  no  sympathy  with  anyone — historian,  or  critic  of 
dogmas  and  manner  —  who  has  a  sneer  for  their  faith, 
their  observances,  their  ways  of  living  and  speaking,  — 
even  though  it  be  true,  as  one  has  facetiously  said,  that 
they  came  in  a  month  of  winds  and  storms,  and  took  a 
cold  which  has  affected  the  intonations  of  their  posterity. 

I  prefer  always  to  regard  the  Pilgrim  Puritans  or  the 
Puritan  Pilgrims  in  a  large  way,  as  emancipators  of  the 
human  mind,  as  evangelists  of  liberty  to  mankind.  I  de- 
light to  recall  the  confession  of  Hume,  —  partisan  of  the 
Stuarts  and  cynic  as  well,  —  that  the  Puritans  kindled  and 
preserved  in  England  the  spark  of  liberty,  and  that  to  them 
the  English  owe  the  whole  freedom  of  their  Constitution. 
I  remember  that  Bancroft,  professor  of  a  different  faith, 
attributes  to  Calvin  the  influence  which  enfranchised  the 
human  mind,  and  carried  the  doctrines  of  popular  liberty 
over  the  globe.  Dean  Stanley,  dignitary  of  the  Church 
from  whose  persecutions  our  fathers  escaped,  standing  in 
Leyden  Street  in  Plymouth,  said  thoughtfully  and  rever- 
ently, "  This  is  the  most  historic  street  in  the  world." 

It  deserves  special  note  that  the  few  questionable  acts  of 
our  fathers  appear  in  a  better  light  as  the  records  of  their 
time  are  subjected  to  keener  research  and  criticism.  Al- 


THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT. 


285 


lowing  all  that  is  due  to  Roger  Williams  for  his  assertion 
of  "  soul  liberty,"  modern  studies  have  shown  that  this 
"  conscientiously  contentious  man,"  as  one  has  called  him, 
this  "  arch-individualist,"  as  another  has  styled  him,  was 
excluded  from  the  Massachusetts  Colony  for  reasons  almost 
wholly  if  not  purely  political,  —  for  his  disturbance  of  the 
public  peace,  his  insubordination  to  civil  authority  outside 
matters  of  religion  and  belief,  his  assault  on  the  foundations 
of  civil  government.  He  was  visited  with  none  of  the 
dire  penalties  inflicted  in  those  days  on  heresy,  and  was 
simply  allowed  to  withdraw  to  the  milder  climate  and 
better  soil  of  the  Narragansetts.  Dr.  Dexter's  monograph 
on  this  question  has  been  accepted  as  a  true  version  of 
history  by  eminent  historical  students  of  Rhode  Island, 
like  Professor  Diman. 

The  removal  of  the  Acadians  a  century  later,  in  part 
executed  by  Colonel  Winslow,  has  been  another  of  the 
grave  charges  against  our  fathers.  Romance  has  pictured 
their  sad  migration  from  Grand  Pre*  to  distant  Louisiana. 
Their  tale  of  woe  has  been  told  in  the  hexameters  of 
our  most  renowned  poet.  The  imagined  face  of  Evan- 
geline,  fair  maiden  of  seventeen  summers,  reproduced  in 
illustrated  gift-books  and  hanging  on  cottage  walls,  has 
taught  impressible  childhood  how  cruel  were  the  men  of 
New  England  of  the  eighteenth  century.  But  it  now 
appears,  from  Mr.  Parkman's  authentic  narrative,  that  the 
Acadians,  stimulated  and  wrought  upon  by  French  priests 
and  emissaries,  were  a  hostile  body  encamped  within 
British  territory,  in  dangerous  proximity  to  the  enemy's 
line,  at  a  dread  moment  when  two  well-matched  powers 
were  contending  for  the  mastery  of  the  continent.  Nor 
was  the  extreme  measure  of  expatriation  resorted  to  until 
all  efforts  to  bring  the  Acadians  to  their  allegiance  had 
failed. 


286  THE  PURITAN  SPIRIT. 

The  men  of  New  England  here  and  everywhere,  with  all 
their  traditions  of  freedom,  are  again  summoned  to  the  de- 
fence of  the  old  cause  now  assailed  from  a  new  direction. 
Our  fathers  contended  for  liberty  of  conscience  and  of  wor- 
ship. A  later  generation  fought  for  the  right  to  tax  them- 
selves, or,  in  a  larger  sense,  for  national  autonomy  and  de- 
velopment. Still  a  later  one,  amid  fire  and  blood,  broke  the 
fetters  of  four  million  slaves,  and  welded  this  nation  to- 
gether. But  now  the  right  of  men  and  women  to  labor  for 
themselves  and  their  families  is  assailed  by  terrorism  and 
violence.  To  the  aspirations  of  toiling  millions  Christian 
America  will  always  respond  with  sympathy,  favoring  all 
social  and  industrial  arrangements  which  will  promote 
their  welfare.  But  to  one  thing,  as  a  free  people,  we  must 
hold  fast.  The  right  of  every  man  to  work  for  whom  he 
pleases,  and  as  long  as  he  pleases,  and  for  what  wages  he 
pleases, — with  a  corresponding  right  in  every  man  who 
wishes  to  employ  him, —  is  a  fundamental,  an  original,  a 
primordial  right,  lying  deeper  than  statutes  or  any  human 
devices,  just  as  essential  as  the  right  of  every  man  to  own 
himself,  born  with  us  and  derived  from  Nature  herself. 
If  we  are  not  to  hold  this  right  free,  unlimited,  and  abso- 
lute; if  it  is  to  be  yielded  to  threats,  to  boycotts,  to  the 
despotism  of  self-constituted  bodies,  —  vain  then  are  all 
that  Milton  and  Sidney  and  Harrington  and  Adams  and 
Jefferson  have  written!  Vain,  too,  are  those  fields  of 
blood  at  Saratoga  and  Gettysburg !  Are  freemen  —  sons 
of  Pilgrim  and  Revolutionary  sires,  struggling  to  give  bread 
to  their  children  —  to  be  driven  from  their  work-shops,  to 
be  compelled  to  lose  the  fruits  of  their  labor,  to  mortgage 
and  sell  their  homes,  to  draw  from  the  savings-bank  the  last 
farthing  of  their  deposits,  and  then  with  their  starving  and 
weeping  families  to  go  forth  to  beggary  or  the  almshouse, 
at  the  dictation  of  any  illegal  and  irresponsible  power? 


THE   PURITAN   SPIRIT.  287 

Men  of  New  England,  it  is  for  you  to  answer.  All  honor 
to  that  elected  Mayor  of  New  York,1  though  not  a  New 
Englander,  who,  when  recently  standing  for  the  suffrages 
of  his  fellow-citizens,  kept  his  manhood,  and  boldly  struck 
at  dangerous  heresies !  All  honor  to  that  high  prelate,2 
though  not  a  Protestant,  who  with  clear  thoughts,  set  in  a 
vigorous  style,  has  just  ministered  to  his  flock  in  timely 
warnings ! 


On  Friday  last,  the  poet,  who  by  his  sympathy  with  her 
ideals,  her  history,  her  scenery,  and  her  common  life,  is 
distinctively  the  poet  of  New  England,  completed  his 
seventy-ninth  year.3  Rich  in  fame  and  the  gratitude  of 
mankind  as  he  is,  we  bespeak  for  John  G.  Whittier 
continued  length  of  days.  He  will  allow  us  to  apply 
to  all  New  England  what  he  has  written  of  his  beloved 
Massachusetts,  — 

"  For  well  she  keeps  her  ancient  stock, 
The  stubborn  strength  of  Pilgrim  Rock, 
And  still  maintains,  with  milder  laws 
And  clearer  light,  the  Good  Old  Cause." 

1  Abram  S.  Hewitt. 

2  Archbishop  Corrigan. 

«  Mr.  Whittier  died  September  7,  1892,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four. 


288  THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY. 


XII. 

COLONEL  WILLIAM  W.  CLAPP,  then  editor  of  the  "  Boston 
Journal,"  invited  ten  gentlemen  of  Massachusetts  to  write  a  series 
of  articles,  to  be  published  in  the  "  Journal,"  on  political  subjects 
likely  to  interest  voters.  Among  the  other  writers  of  this  series 
were  the  two  United  States  senators  from  Massachusetts,  Mr. 
Dawes  and  Mr.  Hoar,  —  and  also  Mr.  Dawes's  successor,  Mr. 
Lodge.  The  article  contributed  by  Mr.  Pierce  (so  much  of  which 
as  relates  to  the  support  of  one  party  being  here  omitted),  as  one 
of  the  ten  writers,  was  published  in  the  "Journal "  October  29,  1887. 


THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY. 

ANOTHER  State  election  is  at  hand,  and  every  citizen 
is  called  upon  to  perform  again  the  duty  which,  if  he  is 
right-minded,  he  has  performed  annually  since  he  became 
twenty-one,  and  which  he  will  continue  to  perform  every 
year  of  his  life.  It  is  a  permanent  duty,  not  to  be  aban- 
doned until  he  forswears  allegiance  to  his  country.  It 
is  a  continuous  duty ;  not  one  incumbent  only  once  in  four 
years  or  once  in  two,  but  one  obligatory  every  year,  and 
as  often  as  an  election  —  national,  State,  or  municipal  — 
occurs.  If  one  citizen  may  forego  it  rightfully,  then  may 
all ;  and  if  all  were  to  follow  the  example  of  the  faithless 
one,  there  could  be  no  representative  government.  It  is 
no  apology  to  answer  that  others  will  do  their  duty,  and 
a  vote  here  and  there  will  not  be  missed.  No  one  can 
shake  off  his  responsibility  by  assuming  that  others  will 


THE  CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY.  289 

discharge  theirs.  The  citizen's  duty  to  vote  is  individual, 
and  his  default  creates  a  vacancy  which  no  other  citizen 
can  fill.  Besides,  the  example  of  an  unfaithful  citizen  is 
contagious ;  and  if  he  is  indifferent  to  the  welfare  of  his 
city  or  town,  of  his  State  and  his  country,  he  diffuses 
about  him  an  atmosphere  of  indifference  which  is  fatal 
to  public  spirit  in  the  community  where  he  may  be  con- 
spicuous for  his  wealth,  his  business  activity,  or  his  so- 
cial power.  This  asceticism  which  withdraws  men  from 
human  activities  may  be  well  enough  in  monks,  but  it  is 
altogether  unnatural  among  citizens. 

The  absence  from  the  polls  of  citizens  who  have  a 
stake  in  society  is  an  invitation  to  others  who  are  "  on 
the  make "  to  come  in  and  occupy  the  field  which  has 
been  left  vacant.  The  official  corruption  which  has  pre- 
vailed for  a  generation  in  the  metropolitan  city  of  New 
York  (just  now  calling  universal  attention  in  the  trial  of 
Sharp),  which  has  controlled  of  late  years  the  great  west- 
ern city  of  Chicago,  and  which  has  at  last  invaded  the 
city  of  Boston,  would  in  each  case  have  been  beaten  back 
if  good  citizens  had  kept  up  the  same  interest  in  their 
civil  duties  as  they  have  taken  in  the  management  of  their 
business  and  the  care  of  their  families.  The  career  of 
Tweed  means  that  great  numbers,  counted  by  thousands 
and  even  tens  of  thousands,  who  were  regular  in  attend- 
ance in  counting-rooms,  never  gave  a  thought  to  their 
duty  to  vote  at  elections,  and,  what  is  equally  essential, 
to  unite  beforehand  with  others  of  like  mind  so  as  to  make 
their  votes  effective.  The  vote  is  all-important ;  but  of 
not  less  moment  is  the  preparatory  conference,  be  it 
caucus,  convention,  or  by  whatever  name  it  is  called. 
Burke's  words  are  trite  enough,  but  they  are  ever  true: 
"  When  bad  men  combine,  the  good  must  associate ;  else 
they  will  fall  one  by  one,  an  unpitied  sacrifice  in  a  con- 

19 


290  THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY. 

temptible  struggle."  Nor  is  the  evil  of  political  indolence 
and  indifference  confined  to  great  centres  of  population. 
What  has  happened  in  cities  has  come  to  pass  also  in 
many  quiet  towns  where  the  abdication  of  duty  on  the 
part  of  good  citizens  has  opened  the  way  to  wild  enter- 
prises, extravagant  expenditures,  and  heavy  debts. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  when  affairs  in  nation, 
State,  or  town  go  wrong,  the  citizens  who  are  habitually 
indifferent  to  their  civil  duties  are  the  first  to  complain  ; 
and  they  are  of  all  men  apt  to  complain  most  vigor- 
ously. I  recall  an  incident  in  point,  which  occurred  a  few 
years  ago  in  my  own  town.  As  I  was  standing  in  front 
of  the  town-house,  trying  as  best  I  could  to  influence  my 
fellow-citizens  aright,  I  observed  a  gentleman  on  horseback 
riding  by  leisurely,  who,  on  solicitation,  refused  to  stop  a 
moment  and  give  his  vote,  saying,  with  a  complacent  air, 
that  he  had  not  voted  for  many  years  ;  and  yet  about  the 
same  time  he  complained  of  the  increase  of  his  taxes. 

Good  citizens  ought  to  remember,  that,  with  their 
continuous  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  and  their 
continuous  activity  in  civil  affairs,  their  votes  have  a 
power  beyond  their  numbers.  Their  public  spirit,  their 
admitted  capacity,  their  personal  character,  their  success 
in  business,  perhaps  their  liberal  charities,  all  combine  to 
give  a  tenfold  power  to  an  individual  vote.  There  are 
always  scores  of  men  who,  without  pretension  to  large 
knowledge  or  experience,  mean  to  do  the  right  thing 
under  the  best  light  they  have,  and  they  are  glad  to 
follow  the  just  and  well-informed  man  in  whom  they  put 
faith.  This  personal  power  is  one  of  the  social  forces 
which  can  be  wielded  for  vast  benefit  to  mankind,  —  and 
more,  perhaps,  in  civil  than  in  all  other  affairs. 

Young  men,  particularly  young  men  engaged  in  trades 
and  commercial  business,  ought  to  begin  life  with  the 


THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT  DUTY.  291 

determination  to  perform  faithfully,  continuously,  and  to 
the  end  their  duty  as  citizens,  never  neglecting  to  vote  at 
an  election.  What  they  at  first,  perhaps,  think  to  be  a 
task,  they  will  come  to  enjoy  as  a  relaxation.  There  is 
always  satisfaction  in  duty  performed  ;  and  they  will  find 
in  the  performance  of  political  duty  not  only  a  patriotic 
service,  but  also  the  exercise  of  the  higher  qualities  of 
the  mind.  They  will  learn  much  of  human  nature,  some- 
times in  its  lower  forms,  but  often  also  in  its  higher. 
They  will  come  to  see  how  masses  of  men  are  wielded, 
how  the  forces  of  society  are  moved,  how  States  are  main- 
tained and  developed,  how  laws  and  institutions  are  per- 
fected. There  is  no  finer  constructive  work  in  the  world 
than  the  building  and  perfecting  of  political  communities  ; 
and  every  young  man  can  find  here  a  field  for  his  interest 
in  his  fellow-men,  for  his  generous  aspirations,  and  for 
the 'exercise  of  all  those  fresh  powers  of  his  being  which 
are  yearning  for  activity  and  development.  Regarded  in 
their  true  light,  there  is  no  better  moral  and  intellectual 
gymnasium  than  the  town-house  and  the  ward-room. 

Among  the  leading  States,  there  is  none  where  default 
in  political  duty  prevails  so  much  as  in  Massachusetts. 
It  has  been  here  an  evil  of  exceptional  growth,  and  its 
disastrous  effects  are  beginning  to  manifest  themselves. 
In  May,  1885,  there  were  442,612  legal  voters;1  but  in 
the  November  following  only  209,668  votes  were  cast  for 
governor.  Allowing  for  a  natural  increase  of  four  or 
five  thousand  voters  between  May  and  November,  there 
appear  to  have  been  as  many  as  237,000  voters  who  failed 
to  vote,  —  more  stay-at-homes  than  voters  who  did  their 
duty.  Such  a  non-voting  population  cannot  be  found 

1  Or,  rather,  "  potential  "  voters ;  that  is,  those  who  could  have  qualified 
as  voters.  In  1895,  out  of  560,802  "potential "  voters  only  328,121  voted, 
leaving  232,681  who  did  not  vote. 


292  THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY. 

anywhere  else  among  the  Northern  States.  Twenty  years 
ago  Dr.  Lieber,  the  publicist,  sought  a  comparison  between 
qualified  voters  and  votes  cast  in  Massachusetts.  His 
correspondent  (Charles  Sumner)  requested  me  to  pre- 
pare a  table ;  and  Dr.  Lieber  was  surprised  to  find  what 
a  large  proportion  of  our  people  put  no  value  on  the 
citizen's  birthright.  Some  years  ago  this  startling  fact 
was  partly  explained  by  the  great  majorities  of  the  pre- 
vailing party,  which  made  the  result  a  certainty,  and 
therefore  in  advance  induced  both  sides  to  be  inactive; 
but  that  condition  of  things  has  passed  away,  and  now 
that  every  vote  tells,  this  explanation  of  former  indiffer- 
ence will  not  apply  to  the  present.  Things  have  come  to 
a  pass  in  some  places,  and  are  approaching  it  in  others, 
where  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  town  or  city  where  his 
lot  is  cast,  cannot  spare  the  vote  of  a  single  citizen.  The 
cause  of  good  government,  which  comprehends  all  inter- 
ests,—  just  laws,  an  efficient  police,  the  suppression  of 
crime,  good  schools  and  highways,  honest  administration, 
moderate  taxation, —  makes  it  imperative  that  the  primal 
duty  lying  at  the  source  of  civil  society  should  be  sacredly 
observed.  All  our  concerns  —  directly  or  indirectly, 
sooner  or  later  —  are  affected  by  laws  and  the  quality  of 
their  administration.  Crime  and  pauperism  are  greater 
or  less,  the  police  is  more  or  less  efficient,  our  homes  and 
persons  are  safer  or  more  exposed,  the  streets  are  more  or 
less  passable,  the  schools  are  better  or  worse  taught,  the 
public  moneys  are  wisely  or  foolishly  spent  on  buildings 
and  works,  the  taxes  are  lighter  or  heavier,  business  is 
assisted  or  cramped,  labor  receives  a  greater  or  less  re- 
ward, just  in  proportion  as  citizens  do  their  duty  punctu- 
ally and  intelligently  at  the  polls.  There  are  towns  in 
this  State  where  the  rate  of  taxation  now  exceeds  twenty 
dollars  on  a  thousand,  often  more  than  half  the  income 


THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT  DUTY.  293 

that  a  tax-payer  can  get  out  of  his  property,  —  an  enor- 
mous burden  growing  out  of  improvidence  during  and 
since  the  Civil  War,  repelling  and  driving  out  capital  so 
that  the  laborer  is  forced  to  go  elsewhere  for  employment. 
It  is  an  old  lesson,  repeated  too  often  in  our  time,  —  that 
when  responsible  citizens,  for  the  sake  of  ease  or  other 
cares,  step  out,  they  may  be  sure  that  all  that  is  corrupt 
and  low-toned  and  improvident  in  society  will  step  in  to 
take  their  place;  and  the  sure  effect  will  soon  come  in 
high  tax-bills  and  bad  government. 

There  are,  however,  redeeming  features  in  the  situation. 
It  is  a  good  sign  that  in  our  schools,  public  and  private,  the 
scheme  of  civil  government  is  now  taught  as  never  before. 
It  is  a  good  sign  that  tracts  are  being  published  by  soci- 
eties interested  in  political  culture,  with  the  same  object 
which  Charles  Sumner  had  at  heart  when  he  bequeathed 
half  his  fortune  to  the  Library  of  Harvard  College,  to  be 
expended  only  on  books  relating  to  politics  and  the  fine 
arts.  It  is  a  good  sign  that  large  bodies  of  emigrants 
from  the  mother  country,  speaking  our  language  and  long 
living  among  us,  are  waking  up  to  a  sense  of  unperformed 
civil  duties,  and  are  qualifying  themselves  therefor  by 
naturalization  and  registration. 

And  can  there  be  a  higher  and  nobler  duty  than  that 
which  is  incumbent  on  the  citizen?  Politics  is  the  science 
of  government;  and  what  study  is  more  ennobling  and 
far-reaching?  Aristotle,  one  of  the  greatest  of  human 
intelligences,  made  it  the  subject  of  a  treatise  which  for 
more  than  twenty  centuries  has  commanded  minds  of 
the  best  character  and  wisdom.  Strike  from  history  the 
statesmen  who  have  founded,  preserved,  or  developed 
States,  and  what  a  dismal  blank  would  be  left ! 

The  only  excuse  ever  offered  for  political  indifference 
is  the  ignoble  passions  of  politicians  and  parties.  True 


294  THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY. 

enough  and  sad  enough  are  these;  but,  after  all,  what 
scenes  of  human  activity  do  they  not  disfigure !  They 
are  found  in  trade,  in  all  human  competitions,  even  in 
philanthropic  enterprises,  and,  strangely  enough,  in  reli- 
gious councils.  I  know  something  of  politics,  —  having 
never  (I  believe)  missed  a  town  or  State  election,  and 
having  written  and  spoken  on  politics  ever  since  I  became 
of  age,  and  even  before.  I  have  seen  much,  of  course, 
in  political  scenes  that  was  selfish,  mercenary,  low-toned, 
and  base ;  but  I  have  found  also  in  political  associations 
a  vast  deal  of  honor,  uprightness,  self-abnegation,  and 
patriotism  which  made  me  think  better  of  human  nature ; 
and  I  have  found  here,  too,  personal  friendships,  cemented 
by  a  common  thought  concerning  the  republic,  which 
have  been  the  solace  of  years  that  are  passed,  and  will 
be  cherished  to  the  end.  A  man  will  find  in  politics 
what  he  seeks,  —  the  fellowships  which  are  akin  to  his 
own  instincts.  The  author  of  "  In  Memoriam  "  took  no 
poetic  license  when  he  combined  in  his  beloved  friend 
"  a  life  in  civic  action  warm  "  with  "  a  soul  on  highest 
mission  bent." 

The  entire  emancipation  of  the  civil  service  from  parti- 
san dictation  or  influence  has  of  late  commanded  the 
attention  of  thoughtful  citizens.  In  spite  of  hostile  in- 
terests, it  is  a  reform  which  has  come  to  stay.  It  will 
survive  self-constituted  committees,  usurping  despotic 
powers  in  a  free  government,  and  squatting  at  key-holes 
to  find  out  how  freemen  are  thinking  and  voting.  It  need 
not  fear  gibes  and  scoffs  in  political  conventions,  though 
applauded  by  a  thousand  rising  delegates.  It  will  take 
no  harm  from  the  charge  of  dreamy  idealism,  which  fell 
without  hurt  on  the  Antislavery  cause  for  the  ten  thou- 
sandth time.  It  will  endure  even  the  mistakes  and  incon- 


THE   CITIZEN'S   CONSTANT   DUTY.  295 

sistencies  of  its  advocates.  It  has  taken  hold  of  the 
intelligence  and  patriotism  of  the  country.  It  harmonizes 
the  methods  of  government  business  with  those  of  all  other 
business  of  like  character.  It  addresses  itself  to  whatever 
is  fair  and  reasonable  in  the  American  mind.  The  party 
that  treats  it  with  contempt  is  already  defeated. 

One  of  the  functions  of  good  citizens  at  this  time  is  to 
guard  the  purity  of  elections.  In  order  to  prevent  illegal 
votes  and  dishonest  counts,  particularly  in  large  cities,  it 
has  been  found  necessary  to  introduce  various  safeguards 
for  registration  and  inspection,  and  for  the  counting  and 
custody  of  votes.  These  precautionary  provisions  are  no 
hindrance  to  any  voter  who  has  an  honest  vote  to  give ; 
and  they  are  essential  to  exclude  voting  on  dead  men's 
names  as  well  as  other  election  frauds. 


The  character  of  the  "  Boston  Journal "  article  is  attested  by 
the  following  letters  from  Senator  Hoar  and  Colonel  Clapp  :  — 

WORCESTER,  October  29,  1887. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  beautiful  and 
masterly  article  in  the  "Journal."  It  is  good  enough  to  decide 
the  campaign  without  other  speech  or  argument.  I  wish  we  heard 
from  you  much  oftener,  and  that  I  might  sometimes  see  you. 

I  am  faithfully  yours, 

GEO.  F.  HOAR. 

BOSTON  JOURNAL  OFFICE,  November  4,  1887. 

DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  Not  one  but  scores  of  men  who  have 
read  the  series  think  your  article  the  best.  I  most  certainly  agree 
with  them.  Thanking  you  for  your  kindness  in  writing  the 

article, 

I  am  yours  truly, 

W.  W.  CLAPP. 


296  A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 


XIII. 

ON  the  evening  of  June  4,  1888,  Mr.  Pierce,  by  invitation,  de- 
livered an  address  before  the  Local  Improvement  Society  of 
Roslindale,  a  district  of  Boston,  in  which  he  discoursed  on  his 
favorite  subject  of  a  citizen's  duties. 


A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

OUR  thoughts  this  evening  are  to  be  upon  the  city  of 
Boston  and  its  suburbs,  and  certain  duties  befitting  the 
time. 

You  have  for  the  first  object  of  your  society  that  of 
making  more  healthful  and  attractive  your  neighborhood, 
—  a  part  of  the  former  West  Roxbury  and  of  the  ancient 
Roxbury.  This  enterprise  addresses  itself  to  the  best 
elements  and  instincts  of  human  nature,  —  the  sense  of 
beauty,  and  an  interest  not  only  in  one's  own  generation, 
but  also  in  posterity.  Life  is  all  the  richer  and  finer  when 
homes  and  highways  and  public  grounds  bespeak  a  people 
distinguished  for  refinement  and  public  spirit.  Happily, 
here  is  common  ground  where  citizens  can  work  together, 
however  they  may  divide  in  other  regards. 

We  who  live  in  or  near  the  metropolis  are  fortunate  in 
the  places  where  our  lot  is  cast.  It  is  the  hearty  tribute 
of  visitors  that  Boston  is  highly  favored  in  its  site  and 
suburbs.  Facing  the  ocean,  engirt  with  noble  elevations, 
commanding  the  prospect  of  beautiful  streams  and  of  the 


A   CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS  DUTIES.  297 

Blue  Hills  in  the  distance,  it  enjoys  a  beauty  of  situation 
which  is  surpassed  by  no  great  city  of  the  world.  Before 
civilized  man  had  erected  any  structure  upon  this  terri- 
tory, it  must  have  presented  a  landscape  most  attractive 
to  eyes  at  all  open  to  the  charms  of  natural  scenery :  the 
triple- hilled  peninsula,  the  islands  dotting  the  bay,  the 
headlands  and  the  coves,  the  range  of  highland  at  nearly 
all  points  of  the  compass,  rising  in  a  succession  of  natural 
fortresses,  —  Dorchester  Heights,  Savin  Hill,  Wollaston, 
the  hills  of  Milton,  Hyde  Park,  West  Roxbury,  Brookline, 
and  Brighton,  —  then  falling  into  a  plain  at  Cambridge, 
and  rising  again  at  Somerville  and  Charlestown.  The 
scene  is  made  the  more  picturesque  by  the  Neponset  and 
the  Charles,  having  their  sources  in  the  southwest  and 
coming  near  each  other  in  their  windings  at  Dedham, 
being  even  connected  by  Mother  Brook,  —  and  then 
dividing  in  their  courses  and  leaving  an  interval  for  a 
great  city  between  them  as  they  enter  the  sea.  The 
Indian  with  his  untutored  sense,  and  the  original  emigrants 
with  their  profound  seriousness  and  hard  struggle  with 
material  realities  were  blind  to  these  rare  endowments  of 
Nature,  and  thought  only  of  facilities  for  defence,  com- 
merce, and  the  means  of  living.  Our  fathers  builded 
better  than  they  knew  when  they  fixed  their  habitations 
at  Shawmut,  the  future  Boston. 

Population  pushing  in  all  directions  from  the  old  city 
into  the  country  has  marred  the  picture  which  the  sub- 
urbs presented  within  the  memory  of  most  of  us.  Dor- 
chester, West  Roxbury,  and  Brookline  are  no  longer 
farming-towns  intersected  by  shaded  lanes.  The  land- 
scape has  lost  variety  in  many  places  by  the  construction 
of  a  large  number  of  houses  according  to  a  single  design. 
Blocks  are  supplanting  detached  houses,  shutting  out  the 
comforts  of  abundant  light  and  air,  and  stripping  the 


298  A   CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

scene  of  rural  beauty.  But  with  all  this  transformation  from 
large  fields  once  swept  by  the  scythe  to  groups  of  villages, 
there  still  remains  a  natural  scenery  distinguished  for  va- 
riety and  beauty,  with  lawns  suggestive  of  English  taste, 
gardens  and  villas  which  win  admiration  from  travellers, 
and  avenues  and  by-ways  adorned  with  trees  and  shrubs. 
The  changes  I  have  mentioned  are  to  continue  with  the 
exigencies  of  a  crowding  population;  and  they  should 
be  qualified  and  mitigated  by  the  skill  of  architects,  for- 
esters, and  gardeners,  and  the  constant  thought  of  public- 
spirited  citizens. 

Our  fathers  made  us  a  meagre  bequest  in  the  way  of 
architecture.  They  have  left  us  in  churches  and  public 
edifices  hardly  any  which  aside  from  associations  are 
worth  preserving.  The  Spaniards  were  better  builders; 
and  the  cathedrals  of  Mexico  and  Puebla,  —  the  former 
erected  a  few  years  before,  and  the  latter  a  few  years  after, 
the  settlement  of  Plymouth,  —  as  they  stand  to-day,  would 
attract  admiration  in  any  city  of  Europe.  But  the  Puri- 
tans looked  with  no  favor  on  such  costly  expressions  of 
faith;  and  their  consciences  would  have  forbidden  them 
to  enslave  the  native  population  and  use  their  forced 
labor  in  the  cause  of  religion.  King's  Chapel,  not  built 
till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  State 
House,  not  built  till  nearly  its  close,  are  the  most  attrac- 
tive structures  which  precede  this  century.  The  present 
generation  has  witnessed  a  remarkable  advance  in  archi- 
tecture in  this  vicinity.  The  genius  of  Richardson,  a  light 
too  soon  extinguished,  and  of  other  masters  of  his  craft, 
has  adorned  the  city  and  suburbs  with  noble  arches  and 
domes,  and  with  homes  combining  comfort  and  exquisite 
taste. 

Not  only  in  styles  of  building,  but  also  in  the  treatment 


A  CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES.  299 

of  public  grounds,  excellent  skill  has  been  shown.  The 
scene  which  lies  before  you  as  you  stand  on  Arlington 
Street  looking  toward  the  Public  Garden,  is  as  fair  as  any 
that  will  meet  your  eye  in  European  cities.  Four  years 
ago,  as  I  was  passing  a  few  hours  in  the  home  of  the 
Arnolds  at  the  English  lakes,  Matthew  Arnold,  who  was 
a  critic  of  scenery  as  well  as  of  books,  spoke  with  enthu- 
siasm of  the  view  at  the  spot  I  have  named,  saying  it  was 
in  his  mind's  eye  at  the  moment. 

It  is  a  good  fortune  to  live  where  great  events  have 
transpired,  where  good  men  have  wrought  well  for  man- 
kind. A  lofty  shaft  to  the  north  commemorates  the  de- 
votion of  our  fathers.  From  their  rude  breastworks  on 
Dorchester  Heights  they  witnessed  the  departing  fleet  of 
Great  Britain.  Scant  traces  only  remain  of  Washington's 
circumvallation  around  the  city;  but  the  old  elm  still 
stands  at  Cambridge  under  which  he  drew  his  sword  for 
Independence,  and  the  house  still  stands  which  sheltered 
him  during  those  eventful  weeks.  In  Milton  there  is  pre- 
served the  house  where  Warren's  "  Suffolk  Resolves " 
were  adopted.  In  an  hour  or  less  you  &n  take  your  chil- 
dren to  Lexington  and  Concord,  — 

"  Where  once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world." 

The  Old  South  Church  and  Faneuil  Hall  echo  to  the  voices 
of  Liberty  and  Union.  There  are  cherished  among  us  the 
homes  and  graves  of  statesmen,  scholars,  and  poets,  which 
are  now  and  always  will  be  sought  by  pilgrims  from  afar. 

Harvard  College  is  one  of  the  greatest  attractions  of 
Boston  and  its  vicinity.  It  has,  in  every  period  of  our 
history,  diffused  a  refinement  in  life,  an  activity  of  thought, 
and  a  liberal  spirit  among  our  people.  Its  advantages  are 


300  A   CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

not  confined  to  the  rich  and  prosperous.  Through  scholar- 
ships, fellowships,  and  various  helps,  it  opens  the  way  to 
aspiring  young  men  of  limited  means  to  achieve  the  posi- 
tions for  which  their  natural  powers  fit  them.  At  no  time 
in  its  history  of  two  and  a  half  centuries  has  it  ever  been 
doing  better  work  for  mankind  than  it  is  now ;  never  was 
it  in  closer  contact  with  the  democratic  instincts  of  our 
people.  It  adapts  its  curriculum  to  various  tastes  and 
capacities  by  its  system  of  elective  studies,  —  perhaps 
going  too  far  in  that  direction.  Never  was  its  corps  of 
instructors  more  competent  and  complete.  It  is  catholic 
in  its  treatment  of  the  different  faiths  among  which  our 
people  are  divided.  It  may  not  always  teach  what  you 
or  I  think,  or  what  our  platform  or  newspaper  says  it 
should  teach ;  but  I  know  no  way  in  which  truth  can  be 
advanced  except  by  according  the  fullest  liberty  to  all  its 
professors  to  teach  just  what  they  believe.  If  at  any  time 
they  send  forth  error,  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  meet  and 
confute  it.  Religion,  politics,  social  reforms,  and  science 
are  best  promoted  by  the  admission  of  this  liberty  without 
questioner  limitation.  Milton's  thought  is  always  true: 
"  Though  all  the  winds  of  doctrine  were  let  loose  to  play 
upon  the  earth,  so  truth  be  in  the  field,  we  do  injuriously, 
by  licensing  and  prohibiting,  to  misdoubt  her  strength. 
Let  her  and  falsehood  grapple ;  who  ever  knew  truth  put 
to  the  worse  in  a  free  and  open  encounter?"  Harvard 
College  —  and  I  say  this  though  not  of  her  alumni — has 
for  me  a  spell  which  belongs  to  no  foreign  university.  I 
have  visited  Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  England,  the  Sor- 
bonne  at  Paris,  Salamanca  in  Spain,  Upsala  in  Sweden, 
and  — 

"  The  olive  grove  at  Academe, 
Plato's  retirement,  where  the  Attic  bird 
Trills  her  thick-warbled  notes  the  summer  long;  " 


A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 


301 


but  I  turn  from  these  renowned  schools  to  more  inspiring 
walks  in  Cambridge,  —  those  trod  by  successive  genera- 
tions of  American  scholars,  philanthropists,  and  patriots, 
whose  words  are  a  perpetual  inspiration  wherever  the 
English  language  is  read;  by  explorers  of  science  who 
command  the  respect  of  all  nations,  jurists  whose  wisdom 
and  learning  are  our  rich  inheritance,  servants  of  humanity 
whose  eloquence  broke  the  fetters  of  the  slave,  and  sol- 
diers in  the  cause  of  country  and  humanity  whose  blood 
poured  freely  on  every  battle-ground  of  our  Civil  War. 

During  the  last  twenty  years,  the  villages  of  New  Eng- 
land have  undergone  great  changes  in  the  way  of  more 
beautiful  homes  and  of  finer  public  buildings.  Never  at 
any  period  has  so  much  been  done  by  men  of  large  for- 
tunes for  the  places  of  their  residence  or  their  nativity. 
The  public  libraries,  schoolhouses,  academies,  town-halls, 
and  memorial  churches,  reared  by  the  bounty  of  successful 
merchants,  are  monuments  at  once  of  modern  art  and  of 
public  spirit.  Each  of  us  can  point  to  villages  familiar  to 
our  youth,  then  uninteresting  and  prosaic,  which  have 
become  picturesque  through  such  well-bestowed  munifi- 
cence. The  generous  endowment  of  one's  native  or  adopted 
town  is  not  a  characteristic  of  our  age  alone.  It  has  ex- 
amples in  antiquity.  Herodes  Atticus,  an  Athenian  of  the 
time  of  the  Antonines,  adorned  the  empire  with  gifts, — 
aqueducts,  theatres,  temples,  and  baths  at  Athens  and  other 
cities  of  Greece,  Asia  Minor,  and  Italy,  the  ruins  of  some  of 
which  bear  his  name  to  this  day  as  patron  and  benefactor. 
Nearly  four  hundred  years  ago  one  of  the  Fuggers,  — 
merchant  princes  of  Augsburg,  and  hosts  as  well  as  bankers 
of  Charles  V.,  —  anticipating  by  centuries  George  Peabody's 
similar  gift  to  London,  erected  in  their  city  one  hundred 
small  houses,  model  homes,  to  be  perpetually  rented  at  a 


302  A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

nominal  rate;  and  this  unique  benefaction  is  still  main- 
tained according  to  his  original  intent.  The  Fuggerei 
make  a  square  by  themselves,  which  is  entered  by  gates, 
and  are  visited  by  travellers  as  one  of  the  principal  sights 
of  the  old  city.  To-day,  Greek  merchants,  who  have 
amassed  fortunes  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  are 
adorning  the  city  of  Athens  with  noble  structures.  In 
kindred  services  for  one's  native  or  chosen  home  are 
opportunities  for  all  who,  inspired  by  an  honorable  instinct 
of  human  nature,  desire  to  leave  behind  them  a  record 
and  a  memory. 

Boston  was  once  called  "  the  Athens  of  America."  It 
derived  this  name  in  part  from  its  diffused  culture,  in  part 
from  the  intense  civic  spirit  of  its  people,  and  perhaps  also 
in  part  from  the  good  opinion  which  they  have  always  had  of 
themselves.  Though  sometimes  given  in  satire,  it  was  in 
a  certain  way  appropriate  at  an  early  period.  But  the  city 
has  undergone  great  changes  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty 
years, — changes  not  merely  in  the  centres  of  business  or 
in  the  quarters  of  fashion,  or  in  costlier  houses  or  churches, 
or  in  new  avenues  and  parks,  but  also  in  the  habit  and 
tone  of  the  people  and  the  shifting  of  political  power. 
Some  links  connecting  with  the  past  remain,  but  the 
greater  number  are  broken.  Boston  is  no  longer  limited 
to  sixty  or  eighty  thousand  inhabitants,  as  it  was  within 
the  memory  of  some  still  living  and  active,  —  a  provincial 
town,  in  which  every  well-to-do  citizen  knew  every  other 
of  like  condition.  It  has  become  metropolitan  in  area  and 
numbers,  and  cosmopolitan  in  tastes  and  opinions.  It 
comprises  within  its  limits  more  than  four  hundred  thou- 
sand people;1  and  this  number,  including  the  suburban 
population  within  twelve  miles,  rises  to  nearly  eight  hun- 
1  The  population  of  Boston  had  risen  in  1895  to  496,920. 


A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES.  303 

dred  thousand.1  Once  a  people  almost  wholly  of  English 
descent,  and  of  the  Protestant  religion  in  its  simplest  and 
sternest  form,  we  are  now  mixed  in  origin  and  divided  in 
faith.  Some  may  sigh  whose  fathers  were  the  first  citizens 
of  the  ancient  town,  or  who  themselves  recall  the  city  as  it 
was  when  the  principal  inhabitants  were  nearly  all  found 
within  ten  or  fifteen  minutes'  walk  from  the  State  House ; 
but  regrets  are  vain.  The  changed  circumstances  —  a  so- 
cial revolution  as  it  were  —  must  be  met  by  greater  civic 
activity,  by  larger  sympathies  with  men  of  all  conditions 
and  beliefs,  and  by  constant  efforts  to  melt  the  incongruous 
elements  into  one  citizenship  and  nationality. 

Amidst  all  changes,  there  are  some  points  to  which  we 
must  hold  fast :  without  them  there  can  be  no  safe  anchor- 
age for  our  institutions.  Whatever  else  we  may  be,  we 
are  and  must  remain  Americans.  The  contests  of  the  Old 
World  must  not  be  imported  here.  We  may  take  a  senti- 
mental, an  academic,  a  humane  interest  in  what  transpires 
in  Europe.  It  is  well  enough  to  celebrate  the  arrival  of  a 
saint  in  a  pagan  land,  the  death  of  an  emperor,  the  fifty 
years'  reign  of  a  queen,  or  the  fifty  years'  priestly  service 
of  a  pontiff;  these  sympathetic  and  commemorative  de- 
monstrations are  harmless.  But  here  the  limit  is  reached. 
Emigrants  who  ask  for  the  rights  must  accept  the  duties 
and  limitations  of  American  citizenship.  They  must  not 
make  our  land  the  tramping-ground  of  foreign  agitators, 
or  the  base  of  operations  for  raids  on  the  territory  of 
friendly  powers.  They  must  not  attempt  to  force  the  issues 
of  foreign  parties  upon  us,  or  to  run  our  politics  on  lines 
of  race  and  religion  :  no  ties  of  kindred  justify  such  a  per- 
version of  the  welcome  which  our  country  has  given  to 
mankind.  We  have  laws  and  courts,  judges  and  juries, 
and  just  men  to  arbitrate ;  and  there  is  no  place  within 
1  Now  (1896)  considerably  exceeding  a  million. 


304  A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

our  jurisdiction  for  barbarous  weapons  of  class  warfare 
imported  from  abroad,  —  sure,  when  resorted  to,  to  involve 
capitalists  and  laborers  in  a  common  ruin.  The  natural- 
ized citizen  is  required  to  forswear  foreign  titles  of  nobility 
and  foreign  ties  of  allegiance ;  but  it  is  of  far  greater  con- 
sequence that  he  renounce  affiliations  and  antagonisms  of 
race  when  he  takes  his  oath  as  an  American  citizen.  If 
any  peculiar  privileges  or  powers,  or  any  title  to  offices  or 
patronage,  are  asserted  on  the  score  of  foreign  origin,  the 
claim  must  be  stoutly  and  fearlessly  resisted.  The  public 
man  who  for  the  sake  of  popularity  or  votes  yields  to  it, 
is  false  to  his  manhood.  Those  who  make  it  are  doing  the 
worst  thing  for  themselves,  —  creating  prejudice,  suspicion, 
and  resentment,  which  are  sure  to  result  in  reaction  and 
determined  resistance.  We  have  one  flag,  dear  to  us  for 
all  it  signifies  and  for  all  the  heroism  it  has  inspired,  and 
we  can  admit  no  foreign  device  to  share  its  place  as  the 
symbol  of  our-  nationality.  It  testifies  to  the  unity  and 
solidarity  of  a  great  people,  composed,  not  of  Scandina- 
vian citizens  or  Irish  citizens  or  German  citizens,  but  of 
American  citizens  only. 

Of  all  our  American  institutions  the  public  school  is  the 
one  to  which  we  must  adhere  with  the  firmest  tenacity. 
If  in  founding  it  our  fathers  were  forecasting,  we  are  de- 
generate indeed  if  we  do  not  stand  by  it  in  one  body. 
Among  the  enduring  honors  of  Massachusetts  is  her  devo- 
tion to  this  institution,  which  was  established  in  days  of 
poverty  and  struggle.  Wherever  her  civilization  has 
spread,  the  common  school  has  been  the  first  care  of 
her  sons,  whether  making  new  homes  in  the  heart  of  the 
continent  or  on  the  Pacific.  Its  primary  object  is  the 
education  of  the  whole  people ;  but  its  secondary  object  is 
equally  important,  —  the  fusing  of  men  of  all  races,  religions, 
and  orders  into  one  common  citizenship  and  nationality. 


A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES.  305 

My  own  earliest  recollection  is  of  my  seat  in  a  public 
school,  in  a  square  stone  structure  at  the  cross-roads ;  and 
all  my  children  have  been  taught  in  similar  association 
with  those  of  my  neighbors.  The  public  school  is  not 
immoral  or  godless  because  it  confines  itself  to  its  legiti- 
mate purpose,  and  forbids  the  intrusion  of  proselytism 
while  treating  all  creeds  on  the  basis  of  absolute  equality. 
The  time  has  come  to  give  the  warning  that  this  institution, 
intrenched  in  the  affections  of  our  people,  will  be  defended 
at  every  cost  against  assaults  from  every  quarter. 

The  separation  of  our  youth  by  sectarian  lines  during 
the  period  of  education  is  a  subject  requiring  grave  and 
delicate  treatment.  It  should  be  discussed  temperately, 
but  without  reserve.  Parents  may  train  their  children  in 
matters  of  faith  as  they  like.  Acting  individually  and 
without  pressure,  they  may,  for  reasons  of  intellectual  or 
religious  discipline,  or  any  other,  place  them  in  such  day 
or  boarding  schools  as  they  choose.  These  rights  are 
traditional  with  us,  and  they  are  unchallenged ;  the  inter- 
ference of  the  State  in  such  affairs  would  be  likely  to  do 
more  harm  than  good.  But  parents,  whatever  their  faith, 
should  soberly  consider  that  with  an  enforced  withdrawal 
of  all  the  children  of  one  sect  from  the  great  body  of  those 
of  their  own  age,  such  children  are  to  be  inevitably  the 
sufferers.  They  are  to  lose  that  community  of  association 
as  well  on  the  play-ground  as  in  the  school-room,  and  that 
mutual  interest  and  fellowship  in  youth  the  loss  of  which 
will  interfere  seriously  in  after  life  with  their  success  in 
business,  their  social  opportunities,  and  that  absorption  in 
and  identification  with  the  mass  of  American  citizens  so 
desirable  on  high  public  as  well  as  personal  grounds. 

One  startling  evil  of  recent  years  is  the  enormous  amount 
of  money  spent  in  elections.     A  small  fraction  of  it  is 


306  A   CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

applied  to  the  legitimate  purpose  of  spreading  information 
among  voters ;  but  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  expendi- 
ture is  demoralizing  and  corrupting  in  its  results.  It  is 
freely  charged  and  generally  believed  —  I  make  no  refer- 
ence to  particular  localities  or  elections  —  that  here  in 
New  England  votes  are  bought  freely  and  in  sufficient 
numbers  to  decide  results,  the  corruption  fund  sometimes 
reaching  the  individual  voter  and  sometimes  stopping  in 
the  hands  of  middlemen.  No  feature  of  our  political 
society  is  so  alarming.  It  means  that  the  primal  sources  of 
patriotism  are  being  poisoned.  It  has  been  in  all  ages 
such  a  mark  of  declining  public  virtue,  that,  but  for  the 
recuperative  power  of  free  institutions  and  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  we  might  fear  for  the  worst.  But  the  time 
has  come  to  take  a  stand  against  this  demoralization,  for 
which  we  hear  too  many  apologies.  No  man,  however 
sheltered  by  wealth  or  good  name,  should  be  spared  who 
directly  or  indirectly  shares  in  it.  No  assumed  respectabil- 
ity of  the  giver  and  no  assumed  necessity  of  the  receiver 
can  palliate  the  enormity  of  the  offence ;  each  should  meet 
the  reprobation  of  all  honest  men  and  the  felon's  doom. 
Some  men,  honorable  in  other  relations,  wink  at  such 
practices  on  the  ground  that  only  by  them  can  what  are 
called  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  universal  suffrage  be 
tempered ;  but  States  are  not  worth  saving  which  require 
such  remedies.  Happily,  in  our  country  there  is  no  such 
alternative  as  between  the  destruction  of  society  and  the 
resort  to  base  means  to  save  it.  At  the  worst,  an  evil  is 
but  temporary  where  a  decision  adverse  to  sound  politics 
or  good  morals  may  soon  be  reversed  by  a  new  appeal  to 
the  people.  Better,  then,  leave  the  government  to  bad 
men  for  a  time  than  have  the  people  corrupted  for  all 
time  by  such  efforts  to  rescue  it.  In  a  large  view,  more- 
over, all  dishonest  and  corrupt  expedients  are  bad  policy. 


A  CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES.  307 

Always  in  the  long  run,  and  generally  in  the  immediate 
exigency,  it  is  better  politics  as  well  as  better  economy  to 
disregard  the  votes  and  influence  which  are  for  sale  to  the 
highest  bidder,  —  often  not  delivered  even  when  paid  for, 
—  and  with  patriotic  appeals  to  go  straight  to  the  best 
moral  and  political  sense  of  the  people.  Sad,  indeed,  it  is 
that  there  are  candidates  who  will  pay  the  price,  and  poor 
creatures  who  will  take  it;  but  saddest  of  all  is  the  too  gen- 
eral indifference  to  a  transaction  —  the  buying  and  selling 
of  a  freeman's  birthright  —  which  public  opinion  ought  to 
stamp  as  infamous. 

Nor  is  there  anything  in  power  or  office  which  can  com- 
pensate for  personal  dishonor  in  winning  it.  Public  life 
has  attractions  for  generous  minds,  who  are  conscious  of 
capacity  and  crave  its  opportunities.  The  aspiring  young 
man  reads  of  the  founders  and  leaders  of  States,  and  hopes 
to  tread  in  their  footsteps ;  but  he  may  have  to  wait  a 
lifetime  in  vain,  while  he  sees  honors  and  dignities  con- 
ferred upon  others  less  competent,  as  he  may  think,  than 
himself.  Better,  however,  than  all  honors  and  dignities  is 
the  consciousness  that  from  youth  to  age  he  has  borne  an 
unsullied  banner. 

"  'Tis  not  in  mortals  to  command  success  ; 
But  we  '11  do  more,  Sempronius  :  we  '11  deserve  it." 

I  make  no  apology,  on  the  eve  of  a  national  contest  des- 
tined to  be  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  educating  in 
our  history,  for  entering  on  topics  like  these. 

The  questions  which  now  confront  the  citizen  have  a 
peculiar  variety  and  complexity,  and  are  in  close  relation 
with  home  interests.  Theories  of  the  character  and  scope 
of  our  national  Constitution  are  in  the  main  settled.  Sla- 
very, which  troubled  the  national  conscience  and  finally 


.308  A   CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

brought  on  civil  war,  exists  no  longer.  Without  touching 
upon  national  controversies  which  remain,  I  may  allude  to 
more  local  topics  which  give  little  opportunity  for  senti- 
ment and  declamation,  and  address  chiefly  the  judgment, 
—  such  as  the  security  of  the  ballot,  the  direction  of  the 
police,  the  effective  control  of  the  liquor  traffic,  the  methods 
and  subjects  of  taxation,  the  restriction  of  municipal  ex- 
penditures and  debts,  the  government  of  cities,  the  power 
of  mayors,  the  distribution  of  municipal  work  among 
boards,  the  suppression  of  patronage  in  the  appointment 
of  officers  and  the  employment  of  laborers,  the  systems  of 
water  supply,  sewerage,  and  street-lighting,  —  all  calling 
for  accurate  investigation  and  the  application  of  the  best 
practical  judgment  and  scientific  training.  These  ques- 
tions concern  intimately  the  well-being  of  our  families.  As 
they  are  wisely  decided,  our  revenues  are  less  drawn  upon 
by  taxation,  our  homes  become  healthier  and  safer,  our 
property  more  valuable,  and  our  neighborhood  in  every 
way  more  desirable.  No  man  —  merchant,  lawyer,  or 
capitalist  —  can  be  above  such  weighty  interests ;  no  one 
is  so  humble  as  to  be  beneath  them ;  and  all  of  every 
grade  of  fortune  should,  and  can,  make  themselves  felt 
in  their  decision. 

There  is  one  appeal  which  I  forego  no  opportunity  of 
making  to  my  fellow-citizens,  and  particularly  to  those 
who  by  the  privilege  of  superior  intelligence  ought  to  be 
a  power  in  their  own  communities.  There  can  be  no 
successful  working  of  our  democratic  polity  without  the 
constant  interest  and  activity  of  good  citizens.  I  have  no 
right  to  wrest  this  unpartisan  occasion  from  its  purpose 
by  soliciting  you  to  leave  one  party  and  join  another ;  but 
I  can  fairly  appeal  to  all  —  within  your  party  where  party 
questions  are  at  issue,  and  outside  your  party  where  no 


A   CITIZEN   OF  BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES.  309 

party  allegiance  is  concerned  —  to  make  your  influence 
felt  in  all  that  relates  to  the  public  welfare.  Keep  in  close 
touch  with  the  community  where  you  live,  —  not  only 
in  your  church  or  club-room  or  in  social  life,  but  also  in 
the  caucus  and  ward-meeting,  and  in  every  society  like 
this,  which  aims  to  elevate  and  refine  human  life,  and  to 
promote  good  fellowship  among  neighbors.  It  is  sheer 
conceit  and  pessimism  for  any  man  to  stand  aloof  from 
his  fellow-citizens,  unwilling  to  take  his  chance  of  per- 
suading them  to  think  and  vote  as  he  does,  assuming  that 
all  is  going  to  ruin,  and  that  it  is  folly  for  him  to  have  his 
domestic  quiet  disturbed  by  thoughts  of  the  public  weal. 
He  will  yet  see,  perhaps  too  late,  the  perils  of  such  selfish 
isolation.  Unless  good  citizens  bestir  themselves  with  an 
energy  beyond  what  they  have  shown  in  recent  years,  this 
fair  city,  by  excessive  expenditure,  taxation,  and  debt,  is 
to  lose  the  capital  and  enterprise  which  are  essential  to  its 
prosperity.  They  can  hope  to  save  it  from  that  calamity 
only  by  sharp  vigilance,  thorough  organization  for  the 
common  defence,  and  a  genuine  and  sustained  public 
spirit  which  is  at  all  times  ready  to  forego  pleasure  or 
ease  or  gain  in  the  performance  of  a  citizen's  duty. 

Such,   citizens,    is   your    home,    and    such   are    your 
opportunities. 


The  following  letters  from  two  Boston  clergymen  belong  here  : 

BOSTON,  June  21,  1888. 

DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  ...  I  have  been  meaning  to  thank  you 
for  what  you  said  about  the  Duties  of  a  Boston  Citizen.  I  read 
your  words  with  sincere  satisfaction  and  true  personal  gratitude. 

Ever  faithfully  your  friend, 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS. 


3IO  A  CITIZEN   OF   BOSTON:   HIS   DUTIES. 

MAGNOLIA,  Mass.,  July  22,  1888. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  I  am  very  much  indebted  to  you  for 
remembering  me  with  a  copy  of  your  admirable  pamphlet  on  the 
"  Obligations  of  the  Citizen."  Its  pages  deserve  to  be  written  in 
letters  of  gold ;  and  I  thank  you  for  the  privilege  of  reading  and 
preserving  it. 

Faithfully  yours, 

HENRY  W.  FOOTE. 


AND   1852.  311 


XIV. 

MR.  PIERCE,  assisted  by  the  late  Henry  O.  Hildreth,  arranged  a 
reunion  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  Massachusetts,  survivors  of  the 
national  elections  of  1848  and  1852,  which  was  held  at  the 
Parker  House  in  Boston,  June  28,  1888,  the  fortieth  anniversary 
of  the  first  convention  which  organized  the  party  in  the  State. 
Among  the  one  hundred  and  fourteen  persons  who  took  seats  at 
the  table  were  Chief-Justice  Marcus  Morton ;  Samuel  E.  Sewall, 
the  veteran  lawyer;  Francis  W.  Bird;  Thomas  Wentworth  Hig- 
ginson ;  John  Winslow,  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ;  and  Horace  E. 
Smith,  of  Johnstown,  N.  J.  John  G.  Whittier  was  present  at 
the  reception  immediately  preceding  the  dinner ;  but  being  an 
invalid,  he  left  just  before  the  guests  proceeded  to  the  dining-hall. 
Mr.  Pierce  had  in  1848,  though  not  then  of  voting  age,  taken  an 
earnest  interest  in  the  election  of  that  year ;  and  as  soon  as  he 
became  a  voter  in  1850,  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  Free  Soil 
movement.  He  presided  at  this  dinner,  and  gave  the  opening 
address. 


THE  FREE  SOILERS  OF    1848  AND  1852. 

VETERAN  FREE  SOILERS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  !  Forty 
years  ago  you  rallied  for  the  defence  of  freedom  in  the 
United  States.  Forty  years  ago  this  day,  in  the  city  of 
Worcester,  under  the  open  sky,  to  the  number  of  thou- 
sands, the  freemen  of  the  Commonwealth,  coming  from  all 
its  counties,  met  with  one  inspiration,  and  declared  by 
formal  resolutions  and  the  voices  of  eloquent  orators  their 
determination  to  resist  the  extension  of  slavery  to  another 


312  THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848   AND   1852. 

foot  of  American  soil.  Breaking  all  political  bonds,  they 
took  their  stand  against  existing  parties,  against  the 
slave-interest  of  the  South  and  the  organized  capital  of 
the  North,  and  set  up  a  new  and  independent  power  in 
American  politics.  They  listened  on  that  day,  with  Sam- 
uel Hoar  in  the  chair,  to  resolutions  reported  by  Stephen 
C.  Phillips,  and  to  addresses  from  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
Charles  Sumner,  Henry  Wilson,  Amasa  Walker,  Joshua 
Leavitt,  Edward  L.  Keyes,  E.  Rockwood  Hoar,  Lewis  D. 
Campbell,  and  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  —  all  save  one  now 
numbered  with  the  dead.1  That  assembly  combined  what 
is  always  best  in  our  old  and  beloved  Commonwealth,  — 
that  conscience,  that  intelligence,  and  that  faith  in  human- 
ity which  are  her  hereditary  glory.  The  survivors  of  the 
Free  Soil  party  of  Massachusetts  meet  at  this  hour  to 
mourn  no  lost  cause,  but  to  commemorate  a  movement 
at  once  glorious  and  triumphant.  We  come  not  here  to 
lament  the  dead,  or  to  indulge  in  regrets  that  our  own 
lives  are  passing.  Rather  with  full  hearts  let  us  rejoice 
that  God  gave  us  the  privilege  of  serving  such  a  cause, 
under  such  leaders,  and  with  such  associates. 

The  proceedings  which  resulted  in  the  convention  of 
June,  1848,  deserve  a  brief  reference.  The  Antislavery 
Whigs,  known  as  "  Conscience  Whigs,"  who  made  resist- 
ance to  slavery  the  paramount  issue,  had  been  from  1845 
to  1848  in  conflict  with  the  "  Cotton  Whigs,"  who  treated 
that  issue  as  subordinate  to  the  maintenance  of  the  tariff 
and  the  financial  measures  of  the  Whig  party.  Some  of 
you  recall  the  Whig  State  conventions  of  1846  and  1847, 
in  both  of  which  Mr.  Webster  appeared,  with  Palfrey, 
Adams,  Sumner,  and  Phillips  on  the  one  side,  and  Winthrop 
on  the  other.  In  May,  1848,  Mr.  Adams  called  a  confer- 
ence at  his  office,  which  was  attended  by  Phillips,  Sumner, 
1  Judge  Hoar,  the  last  survivor,  died  January  31,  1895. 


THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848  AND   1852.  313 

Wilson,  Keyes,  E.  R.  Hoar,  Francis  W.  Bird,  and  Edward 
Wallcutt,  where  a  call  drawn  by  Mr.  Hoar  for  a  conven- 
tion was  agreed  upon,  to  be  issued  in  case  the  Whig 
convention  at  Philadelphia  should  refuse  to  adopt  the 
principle  of  excluding  slavery  from  the  Territories,  and 
should  nominate  a  candidate  not  openly  committed  to 
such  exclusion.  The  Philadelphia  convention  rejected  a 
resolution  affirming  that  principle,  and  nominated  General 
Taylor  for  President.  Promptly  Charles  Allen  announced, 
"  The  Whig  party  is  here  and  this  day  dissolved !  "  and, 
referring  to  the  conciliatory  offer  of  the  vice-presidency  to 
Massachusetts,  added  with  emphasis  and  scorn,  "  Massa- 
chusetts will  spurn  the  bribe  !  "  Wilson  followed  with  the 
historic  protest,  "  So  help  me  God,  I  will  do  all  I  can  to 
defeat  the  election  of  that  candidate !  "  He  called  at  once 
a  conference  of  those  who  were  ready  to  act  with  him, 
and  fifteen  attended,  of  whom  only  two  survive,  —  Stanley 
Matthews  of  Ohio,  now  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  and  John  C.  Vaughan  of  the  same  State, 
a  retired  editor,  now  living  in  Cincinnati.1  Allen  and 
Wilson  were  true  to  their  word,  and  immediately  on  their 
return  home  appealed  to  their  constituents  by  address  and 
letter.  The  call  for  the  convention  at  Worcester,  already 
drawn  and  held  in  reserve,  was  issued,  and  forthwith 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  agitations  in  our  history  en- 
sued. Old  men  and  young  men,  and  women  also,  joined 
in  the  new  movement  with  all  the  ardor  of  crusaders,  and 
the  air  rang  with  the  voices  of  freedom  from  the  Berkshire 
hills  to  the  sea.  Of  the  officers  of  the  Worcester  conven- 
tion, all  are  gone.  Of  the  speakers,  none  but  Judge 
Hoar  survives.  Of  the  committee  on  platform,  of  which 
Mr.  Phillips  was  chairman,  only  Judge  Hoar,  and  Milton 


1  Judge  Matthews  died  March  22,  1889.   Mr.  Vaughan  died  in  Cincinnati 
September  15,  1892,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six. 


314  THE   FREE   SOILERS    OF   1848  AND    1852. 

M.  Fisher  of  Medway,  are  living.  The  latter,  whose  anti- 
slavery  work  goes  back  to  1833,  fifty-five  years  ago,  is 
with  us  to-day.  Of  the  delegates  chosen  for  the  State 
or  districts  to  attend  the  national  Free  Soil  convention 
at  Buffalo,  only  Josiah  G.  Abbott,1  John  A.  Kasson, 
Chauncy  L.  Knapp,  and  Mr.  Fisher  survive.  Mr.  Adams 
presided  over  the  mass  convention  at  Buffalo ;  and  at  one 
of  its  sessions,  his  presence  being  required  elsewhere,  he 
withdrew  from  the  chair,  calling  to  it  Francis  W.  Bird,  a 
veteran  whom  we  greet  to-day. 

The  greatness  of  the  issue  which  brought  the  Free  Soil 
party  into  existence  appears  when  we  recall  the  fact  that  at 
that  time  the  population  of  the  country,  slightly  exceeding 
twenty  millions,  was,  with  the  exception  of  Texas,  limited 
to  the  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  River,  and  to  the  four 
States  contiguous  to  its  western  shore.  Beyond  the  great 
river,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  were  slave 
States,  with  Iowa  alone  secure  to  freedom ;  all  else  was 
territory  with  destiny  undetermined.  The  propagandists  of 
slavery  demanded,  with  threats  of  disunion  and  armed  re- 
sistance, that  the  Territories  —  those  recently  acquired  from 
Mexico  and  those  included  in  the  Louisiana  purchase  — 
should  be  open  to  slavery.  That  vast  region,  then  unin- 
habited but  now  swarming  with  population,  imperial  in 
space,  stretching  from  the  western  boundaries  of  Iowa  and 
Missouri  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  the  British  posses- 
sions to  the  Mexican  line,  with  untold  mineral  and  agricul- 
tural wealth,  was  in  peril.  Contemplate  its  territorial  magni- 
tude and  its  capacity  as  a  seat  of  empire !  It  embraced 
more  than  sixteen  hundred  thousand  square  miles,  — 
five  times  as  many  as  were  included  in  the  original  thir- 
teen States,  and  more  than  half  of  our  entire  dominion 
before  the  later  purchase  of  Alaska.  It  was  altogether 

1  Judge  Abbott  died  June  2,  1891. 


THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848   AND   1852.  315 

unrecognized  in  the  census  of  1840,  and  was  reported  in 
that  of  1 850  with  only  two  hundred  thousand  inhabitants, 
chiefly  natives  and  new  settlers  in  California  and  New 
Mexico.  To-day  it  numbers  not  less  than  seven  millions 
of  people,1  equal  to  a  third  of  the  entire  population  of  the  ,• 
United  States  in  1848, —a  number  which,  in  view  of  the 
western  movement  of  the  mass  of  emigrants  from  continen- 
tal Europe,  is  likely  to  rise  to  twenty-five  millions  within 
the  lifetime  of  men  now  living.  Truly,  the  Free  Soilers 
of  1848  did  not  exaggerate  when  they  warned  the  people 
that  the  destinies  of  countless  millions  were  at  stake. 
Their  movement  saved  Oregon,  which  under  its  pressure 
was  organized  as  a  free  Territory  immediately  on  the 
adjournment  of  the  Buffalo  convention.  It  concentrated 
the  Antislavery  sentiment  of  the  North  against  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery.  It  stood  defiant  in  1852,  when  the  two 
old  parties  declared  the  Compromise  Measures  of  1850  a 
finality,  and  attempted  to  crush  out  all  agitation  against 
them.  It  prepared  the  way  for  that  larger  movement 
which  came  near  success  in  1856,  and  finally  triumphed 
in  1860.  History  commemorates  it  as  one  of  the  stages 
in  that  grand  conflict  with  slavery  which  made  our  country 
free  from  ocean  to  ocean,  with  no  master  and  no  slave  in 
any  part  of  its  domain.  Sumner  expressed  its  significance 
at  the  time :  "  We  found  now  a  new  party.  Its  corner- 
stone is  freedom ;  its  broad,  all-sustaining  arches  are  truth, 
justice,  and  humanity." 

The  specific  object  of  the  Free  Soil  movement  of  1848 
was  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  territories ;  but  its 
idea  and  spirit  were  broader.  Its  platform  at  Buffalo  — 
largely  the  work  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  assisted  by  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  and  Benjamin  F.  Butler  of  New  York  — 
called  for  legislation  by  Congress  against  slavery  wherever 
1  According  to  the  Census  of  1890,  it  amounted  to  7,395,806. 


316  THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848   AND   1852. 

it  depended  on  national  law.  Satisfied  with  this  compre- 
hensive declaration,  the  Liberty  party  —  which  had  cast 
seven  thousand  votes  in  1840  and  sixty-two  thousand  in 
1844,  m  each  case  for  James  G.  Birney  —  joined  in  the  new 
party,  which,  with  Van  Buren  and  Adams  as  candidates, 
cast  two  hundred  and  ninety-one  thousand  votes  in  1848. 
This  number  was  reduced  in  1852  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty-six  thousand,  chiefly  by  the  return  of  the  Barnburners 
of  New  York  to  the  Democratic  party.  In  Massachusetts 
the  party  maintained  its  vigor  until  the  election  of  1854, 
when  it  was  distracted  by  the  Know-Nothing  controversy. 
A  year  later  it  was  merged  in  the  Republican  party,  which 
grew  out  of  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

The  Free  Soilers  of  Massachusetts  were  men  of  extra- 
ordinary vitality.  Not  only  their  foremost  leaders,  but 
their  chief  men  in  towns  and  cities  were  strong  in  their 
combination  of  intellect,  will,  and  intense  moral  convic- 
tions. Casting  less  than  forty  thousand  votes  at  their 
highest  point,  and  falling  at  times  below  thirty  thousand 
(less  than  a  third  of  the  voters  of  the  State),  it  is  note- 
worthy how  many  of  them  afterward  came  to  the  front 
rank  in  public  life.  Samuel  Hoar,  Horace  Mann,  Stephen 
C.  Phillips,  and  Edward  L.  Keyes  died  before  the  war;  but 
the  other  leaders  lived  to  take  part  in  the  civil  conflicts 
which  ended  in  the  entire  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  United 
States.  The  Legislature  chosen  in  1850  placed  Sumner  in 
the  Senate,  where  he  remained  till  his  death,  in  1874, — 
always  the  antislavery  protagonist  in  Congress,  and  for  ten 
years  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations. 
Wilson  became  his  colleague  in  1855,  succeeding  Edward 
Everett ;  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Military 
Affairs  during  the  war,  and  when  he  died,  in  1875,  was 
holding  the  second  office  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Adams,  entering  Congress  by  an  election 


THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848   AND   1852.  317 

in  1858,  was  soon  called  to  represent  the  country  as  its 
ambassador  to  Great  Britain,  and  to  conduct  the  most  im- 
portant diplomatic  controversy  in  our  history;  the  public 
spirit  inherited  from  his  ancestors  he  transmitted  to  his 
sons,  two  of  whom  were  old  enough  to  give  their  youthful 
sympathies  to  the  Free  Soil  cause.  Charles  Allen  was 
chosen  to  a  seat  in  Congress,  and  later  served  for  a  long 
period  as  chief-justice  of  the  Superior  Court.  E.  Rock- 
wood  Hoar  has  served  as  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  State,  member  of  Congress,  and  attorney-general  of  the 
United  States.  Anson  Burlingame,  after  service  in  Con- 
gress, became  our  minister  to  China,  and  was  adopted  by 
that  country  as  its  ambassador  to  European  nations  and 
our  own.  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jr.,  as  United  States  district 
attorney  and  author,  assisted  in  the  just  settlement  of  most 
important  questions  of  international  law,  and  was  nomi- 
nated minister  to  England,  his  confirmation  being  defeated 
only  by  personal  malignity.  John  A.  Andrew  became 
illustrious  as  governor  of  the  State  during  the  Civil  War, 
and  after  an  interval  William  Claflin  was  his  successor  in 
that  office.  Marcus  Morton  of  Taunton,  an  old  Jeffersonian 
Democrat,  came  with  his  three  gifted  sons  into  the  move- 
ment; and  the  one  bearing  his  name  and  inheriting  his 
judicial  faculty  has  had  a  career  of  thirty  years  on  the 
bench,  and  now  holds  the  high  office  of  chief-justice  of  the 
Commonwealth :  we  gratefully  recognize  his  presence  at 
this  table  to-day.1  To  the  roll  of  members  of  Congress  has 
been  added  from  the  party,  besides  names  already  men- 
tioned, those  of  George  F.  Hoar,  of  Worcester,  now  our 
senator  in  Congress,  and  one  of  the  foremost  in  that  great 
body;  John  A.  Kasson,  of  New  Bedford,  at  one  time  min- 
ister to  Austria ;  Alexander  De  Witt,  of  Oxford ;  Amasa 
Walker,  of  North  Brookfield ;  John  D.  Baldwin  and  Wil- 

l  Chief-Justice  Morton  died  February  10,  1891. 


3l8  THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848   AND   1852. 

liam  W.  Rice,  both  of  Worcester ;  Chauncy  L.  Knapp,  of 
Lowell ;  Daniel  W.  Gooch,  of  Melrose ;  John  B.  Alley,  of 
Lynn;  Eben  F.  Stone,  of  Newburyport ;  Henry  L.  Pierce, 
of  Dorchester ;  and  Robert  T.  Davis,  of  Fall  River.  One 
of  the  most  accomplished  of  the  Free  Soil  leaders  was 
Erastus  Hopkins,  of  the  Connecticut  valley,  ever  to  be 
remembered  as  an  orator  of  rare  grace  and  power,  and  a 
steady  and  unselfish  advocate  of  freedom ;  we  are  glad  to 
recognize  his  features  and  genius  in  his  son,  a  leader  at 
the  bar  of  Massachusetts,  and  present  with  us. 

But  I  must  not  prolong  the  enumeration.  Time  would 
fail  me  to  tell  of  Gideon  and  of  Barak,  and  of  Samson 
and  of  Jephthah,  of  David  also  and  Samuel,  and  of  the 
Prophets,  who  through  faith  stood  firm  for  the  freedom 
of  a  race,  wrought  righteousness,  out  of  weakness  were 
made  strong,  waxed  valiant  "in  fight,  breasted  social  and 
political  proscription,  and  served  faithfully  a  cause  as  holy 
as  any  for  which  martyrs  have  died.  We  have  with  us  as 
participants  in  this  reunion  two  distinguished  men,  whose 
antislavery  service  exceeds  a  half  century  in  duration,  — 
John  G.  Whittier,  the  poet  of  freedom,  now  of  four-score 
years ;  and  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  still  older,  the  Nestor  of  the 
Massachusetts  bar,  born  in  the  last  year  of  the  last  cen- 
tury.1 We  welcome  with  tender  regard  the  author  of 
those  inspiring  hymns  which  touched  the  hearts  of  millions 
of  freemen  and  broke  the  fetters  of  the  slave ;  we  honor 
the  patriarch  of  the  law,  whose  services  were  always  at 
the  command  of  fugitive  slaves  before  hostile  or  unsym- 
pathetic tribunals.  In  this  connection  I  ought  to  recall 
to  you  that  the  Liberty  party  cast  one  thousand  votes  for 
its  first  candidate  for  governor  in  1841,  and  nearly  thirty- 
five  hundred  the  next  year;  and  that  from  1843  to  1847 

1  Mr.  Sewall  died  December  20,  1888 ;  and  Mr.  Whittier  died  September 
7,  1892. 


THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848  AND   1852.  319 

inclusive  —  five  successive  years  —  the  standard-bearer 
was  Samuel  E.  Sewall,  whose  vote  rose  from  six  thousand 
to  nearly  ten  thousand ;  his  modesty  and  self-abnegation 
have  alone  kept  him  from  being  called  to  high  public 
trusts.  We  are  fortunate,  too,  in  the  presence  of  Horace 
E.  Smith,  formerly  of  Chelsea,  now  dean  of  the  Law  School 
at  Albany ;  of  John  Winslow,  formerly  of  Newton,  now  an 
eminent  citizen  and  lawyer  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ;  and  of 
Francis  W.  Bird,  who  at  the  age  of  seventy-eight  retains 
the  freshness  and  vitality  of  youth.1  One  word  for  the 
absent,  whom  necessity  and  not  their  choice  prevents  their 
mingling  in  this  festivity,  —  Annis  Merrill,  of  Boston,  who 
emigrated  to  California  in  1849,  and  now  lives  in  San 
Francisco ;  Shubael  P.  Adams,  of  Lowell,  who  has  lived 
since  1857  in  Dubuque,  Iowa;  2  John  A.  Kasson,  of  New 
Bedford,  long  a  resident  of  the  same  State ;  and  Herman 
Kreissman,  of  Boston,  later  of  Chicago,  once  consul-gen- 
eral to  Germany,  and  now  residing  in  Berlin.  Among 
others  necessarily  absent  are  John  B.  Alley,3  now  travel- 
ling abroad ;  William  Claflin,  who  engaged  his  seat  with 
us,  but  was  at  the  last  moment  kept  away  by  a  disability 
resulting  from  a  recent  accident;  Henry  L.  Pierce,  who  is 
on  his  way  to  Europe ;  Judge  Hoar,  who  is  seeking  health 
at  Sharon  Springs ;  and  his  brother,  the  senator,  engaged 
in  public  business  at  Washington. 

A  reunion  of  the  Free  Soilers  of  Massachusetts  took 
place  at  Melville  Garden,  in  Hingham,  August  9,  1877, — 
the  twenty-ninth  anniversary  of  the  convention  at  Buffalo, 
where  many  here  to-day,  and  others  no  longer  living,  were 
the  guests  of  the  late  Samuel  Downer.  This  second  re- 
union, it  is  altogether  probable,  will  be  the  last  celebration 
of  that  historic  movement.  Allow  me  to  add  one  sugges- 

1  Mr.  Bird  died  May  23,  1894.          2  Mr.  Adams  died  March  14,  1894. 
8  Mr.  Alley  died  January  19,  1896. 


320  THE   FREE   SOILERS   OF   1848   AND    1852. 

tion.  This  occasion  is  commemorative,  and  has  no  rela- 
tion to  present  controversies  or  divisions.  The  heats  of 
youth  are  passed,  and  we  can  all  well  afford,  however  we 
may  now  be  parted  in  our  political  relations,  to  give  this 
day  to  common  memories  of  a  great  struggle  in  which  we 
stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  defence  of  human  liberty  on 
this  continent. 


THE  ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 


321 


XV. 


THE  Association  of  British  Americans,  in  Boston,  held  a  meet- 
ing in  the  Dudley-Street  Opera  House,  Roxbury  (Boston),  October 
17,  1889.  Mr.  Pierce  was  invited  on  that  occasion  to  deliver  the 
address.  The  veteran  journalist,  George  H.  Monroe,  wrote  in  the 
"  Boston  Herald,"  October  20,  1889  :  "  Mr.  Edward  L.  Pierce  de- 
livered an  admirable  address  upon  'The  Adopted  Citizen,'  in  Rox- 
bury, last  week,  which  has  just  appeared  in  print.  It  is  thoroughly 
non-partisan,  and  abounds  in  sensible  and  statesmanlike  advice. 
What  it  says  of  the  caucus  is  particularly  good.  It  abounds  in 
wisdom,  and  has  many  quotable  sentences.  Here  is  one  of  them  : 
'  An  ideal  constitution  is  as  waste  paper  without  a  right-minded 
people  behind  it ;  and  on  the  other  hand  a  people  such  as  laid  the 
foundations  of  New  England  will  work  successfully  almost  any 
scheme  of  government,  and  evolve  from  it  order,  liberty,  and 
progress.' " 


THE  ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 

FEW  occasions  are  more  interesting  than  one  like  this, 
when  a  body  of  persons,  intelligent  and  public-spirited, 
assume  the  rights  and  duties  of  citizenship.  In  other 
directions  there  are  signs  of  a  similar  movement.  The 
Hebrews,  for  instance,  most  of  whom  have  a  considerable 
stake  in  society,  have  been  of  late  disposed  to  give  up  their 
habit  of  aloofness.  A  year  ago  I  accepted  with  pleasure 
an  invitation  to  address  one  of  their  meetings  in  this  city, 
on  the  propriety  and  advantage  of  an  active  interest  in 
public  affairs ;  and  I  am  informed  that  their  accession  to 


322  THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 

the  ranks  of  voters  was  sensibly  felt  in  the  last  municipal 
election.  Everywhere  we  must  note  how  generally  edu- 
cated young  men  are  entering  political  contests,  not  merely 
the  national,  but  the  State  and  municipal  elections  as  well. 
With  all  my  heart,  gentlemen,  I  bid  you  welcome  to  the 
proud  title  and  precious  heritage,  —  prouder  and  more 
precious  than  royal  favor  can  give,  —  the  title  and  heritage 
of  American  citizens. 

Why  Englishmen  living  among  us  have  been  hitherto 
slow  to  transfer  their  allegiance,  has  not  been  clear  at  first 
sight.  Perhaps  taking  a  pride,  and  a  just  pride  too,  in 
their  native  land,  they  have  been  reluctant  to  sever  the 
civil  bond  which  bound  them  to  her.  Coming  here  they  fled 
from  no  tyranny,  no  exhausting  taxation,  no  oppressive 
conscription,  no  grinding  poverty;  and  they  have  regarded 
the  old  tie  of  country  like  that  of  family  and  kindred,  as 
one  never  to  be  broken.  But  such  detachment  from  pre- 
sent interests  of  great  moment,  which  are  to  affect  one's 
children  as  well  as  one's  self,  must,  from  the  nature  of 
things,  be  temporary.  No  good  man  can  live  long  among 
a  people  and  yet  keep  himself  apart  from  them.  By  a  law 
of  human  sympathy  he  will  gravitate  to  them,  and  become 
a  combatant  in  their  contests  and  a  sharer  in  their  weal 
and  woe. 

The  transition  is  easy,  in  your  case,  from  the  old  alle- 
giance to  the  new.  You  come  from  one  people  to  another, 
—  each,  however,  of  the  same  racial  stock,  with  the  same 
language,  and  mostly  the  same  institutions.  The  common 
law  which,  as  administered  in  our  court-house  to-day,  de- 
termines our  rights  of  person  and  property,  was  wrought 
out  in  Westminster  Hall.  Here  and  there  are  deviations 
arising  from  new  conditions,  but  the  body  of  doctrine  is 
the  same,  formed  and  developed  by  the  customs  and 
notions  of  justice  which  make  English  character  and  Eng- 


THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 


323 


lish  history.  Our  national  and  State  constitutions  affirm 
certain  fundamental  rights;  but  they  found  their  model 
in  Magna  Charta  wrested  from  King  John,  the  Petition  of 
Right  yielded  by  Charles  I.,  and  the  Declaration  of  Rights 
accepted  by  William  and  Mary.  The  trial  by  jury  and 
the  habeas  corpus  are  from  the  same  historical  source. 
The  rules  of  parliamentary  law  which  are  of  vital  efficacy 
in  all  public  and  popular  assemblies,  and  are  essential  to 
the  working  of  a  democratic  polity,  are  altogether  an  Eng- 
lish growth.  A  judiciary  independent  of  power  from 
above  and  of  dictation  and  passion  from  below  is  another 
inheritance  from  the  mother  country.  Even  the  written 
constitutions  of  Nation  and  States,  which  restrict  govern- 
ment and  safeguard  the  people,  are  a  reproduction  and 
development  of  colonial  charters  which,  with  no  substan- 
tial alterations,  some  of  our  States  have  preserved  to  a 
recent  period  as  their  fundamental  law.  Methods  of  ad- 
ministration devised  by  the  English  race  in  any  quarter 
of  the  world,  however  divided  by  barriers  of  empire  or 
ocean,  are  naturally  transplanted  into  every  region  where 
that  race  prevails.  Thus  the  mode  of  voting,  intended  to 
secure  privacy  and  secrecy  to  the  elector,  first  put  in 
practice  in  Australia  more  than  thirty  years  ago  and 
adopted  in  England  in  1872,  is  to  be  tested  in  this  State 
in  the  election  of  next  month ;  and  if  it  bears  the  test 
well,  it  is  altogether  likely  to  become  the  American  sys- 
tem. Aside  from  law  and  government,  I  need  hardly 
speak  of  that  community  of  intellectual  life  flowing  from 
one  country  to  the  other  through  the  channel  of  a  common 
language;  so  that,  with  all  English-speaking  people  the 
world  over,  there  is  an  identity  of  thought  in  every  de- 
partment of  speculation. 

The  American  system  of  government  differs,  however, 
in  one  respect  from  the  English  or  any  foreign  system,  — 


324  THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 

even  from  that  of  Switzerland,  which  bears  some  anal- 
ogy to  it.  It  imposes  a  double  allegiance  on  every 
citizen,  —  one  to  the  United  States,  and  the  other  to  his 
particular  State.  The  Federal  government,  which  repre- 
sents the  nation,  is  charged  with  foreign  affairs,  with  com- 
merce with  other  nations  and  between  the  States,  and  with 
divers  matters  which  concern  the  whole  country.  All 
other  interests,  by  far  the  most  multifarious,  are  within  the 
exclusive  competence  of  the  State.  This  dual  system 
under  which  two  governments  move  in  their  distinct  orbits 
—  each  kept  in  its  own  sphere  by  the  national  Supreme 
Court,  the  final  arbiter — has  been  admired  by  publicists 
as  the  most  remarkable  invention  of  political  wisdom. 
Without  doubt  it  is  our  great  contribution  to  mankind  in 
constructive  statesmanship.  It  seemed  in  advance  almost 
impossible  to  work  it;  and  even  now,  after  the  lapse  of  a 
century,  one  wonders  that  it  works  with  so  little  friction, 
so  little  conflict  of  jurisdiction.  The  men  who  shaped  it 
in  1787  were  wise  architects  indeed;  but  it  was  not  their 
wisdom  alone  which  has  made  the  fabric  enduring.  They 
framed  it  for  a  people  who  knew  how  to  use  it,  —  for  a 
people  of  moral  earnestness,  of  solid  sense,  of  self-control; 
for  a  people  largely  descendants  of  English  Puritans ;  for 
a  people  who  believed  profoundly  in  liberty,  — not  in  liberty 
as  a  dream,  a  phantasm,  a  festal  show,  but  in  liberty  held 
in  restraint  by  moral  obligation  and  regulated  by  law. 

As  citizens  of  the  United  States  we  vote  for  President 
once  in  four  years,  and  for  members  of  Congress  once  in 
two.  Citizenship  of  the  State  comprehends  participation 
in  all  State  and  municipal  elections.  In  no  country  does 
the  voter  find  himself  so  tasked  as  here,  and  oftentimes 
he  is  bewildered  by  the  number  of  officers  for  whom  he 
must  vote.  The  importance  of  the  national  and  of  the 
general  State  elections  is  always  sufficiently  impressed  on 


THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 


325 


us ;  but  too  little  consideration  is  given  to  the  municipal, 
often  the  most  important  of  all.  There  are  men  who 
vote  always  for  President,  but  who  never  vote  for  mayor 
or  selectmen.  It  is,  however,  the  municipal  government 
which  concerns  most  directly  every  citizen.  On  its  char- 
acter depend  the  rate  of  taxation,  the  security  of  persons 
and  homes,  the  efficiency  of  the  police,  the  quality  of 
the  public  schools,  the  maintenance  of  streets  and  high- 
ways. If  you  hear  a  policeman  passing  your  door  at 
midnight,  it  is  one  thing  to  know  that  he  is  doing  duty  as 
a  faithful  watchman,  and  quite  another  to  suspect  that 
he  is  tramping  on  some  political  errand.  Things  may  go 
wrong  at  Washington,  and  your  share  of  the  loss  may  be 
small;  but  extravagance  and  corruption  at  the  City  Hall 
are  quickly  felt  in  your  tax  bills,  and  in  diminished  se- 
curity of  person  and  property. 

The  people  of  all  free  countries  naturally  divide  into 
parties,  and  these  will  rarely  be  more  than  two.  Detached 
citizens  will  not  count  except  in  a  nice  balance  of  the  two 
parties.  The  cipher  with  a  digit  before  it  has  power,  but 
without  that  it  is  naught.  A  moral  sentiment  like  that 
arrayed  against  slavery  may  keep  alive  a  third  party; 
but  the  contest  against  American  slavery  was  altogether 
exceptional,  and  is  no  guide  in  the  political  controversies 
of  to-day.  If  any  one  hopes  to  give  any  direction  to 
politics,  he  must  do  it  not  as  a  critic  from  outside,  but 
only  by  active  membership  of  the  one  party  to  which  he 
is  by  his  instincts  and  beliefs  most  affiliated.  After  all,  it 
is  the  parties,  the  great  parties,  with  their  nomenclature 
varying  from  time  to  time,  which  have  carried  on  our 
system  of  government;  and,  on  the  whole,  we  probably 
get  better  legislation  and  better  administration  through 
the  responsibility  which  they  assume  than  we  should  have 
if  the  field  were  clear  of  them,  and  all  voting  were  non- 


326  THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 

partisan  and  unorganized.  It  is  an  old  fashion  to  rail  at 
party  spirit,  but  party  spirit  is  essential  to  the  life  of 
States.  The  trouble  will  come  (may  we  have  the  wisdom 
to  meet  it!),  when,  with  the  subsidence  of  sharply  accent- 
uated issues,  the  strife  of  politics  becomes  a  mere  struggle 
for  place  and  patronage. 

The  working  of  parties  involves  the  caucus,  or  primary 
meeting.  This  is  simply  a  method  by  which  people  who 
think  alike  make  their  votes  a  united  force  instead  of 
dissolving  them  into  multitudinous  atoms.  This  asso- 
ciated action  is  so  natural  and  essential  that  citizens  who 
wish  in  a  particular  emergency  to  come  together  without 
reference  to  party,  perhaps  to  overthrow  party  action,  are 
obliged  at  once  to  confer  and  combine.  The  caucus,  as 
it  now  exists  among  us,  differs  from  former  methods  only 
in  this  respect,  —  that  it  recognizes  the  right  of  the  mass 
of  voters  of  the  party  to  name  the  candidate,  instead  of 
leaving  the  nomination  to  a  few  persons  who  assume  the 
function  voluntarily.  In  England,  formerly,  a  noble  or 
land-magnate  proposed  his  son  or  some  friend  for  a  seat 
in  Parliament,  and  a  submissive  tenantry  accepted  him. 
Edmund  Burke,  rejected  by  Bristol,  found  a  seat  for  Mai- 
ton,  a  pocket  borough  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  — 
returning  to  that  body  again  through  "  the  back  door  of 
the  Constitution,"  as  he  called  it  Within  our  time,  some 
clique  or  self-created  committee  has  named  the  candidate ; 
and  the  electors,  still  accustomed  to  defer  to  rank  and 
leadership,  have  approved.  But  even  in  England  one 
notes  that  now,  with  an  enlarged  electorate,  associations 
enrolling  the  mass  of  voters  of  the  party  have  become 
the  nominating  bodies.  As  that  country  advances  to 
universal  suffrage,  she  comes  nearer  to  the  American 
caucus. 

The  caucus,  in  which  all  the  voters  of  a  party  have  a 


THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 


327 


voice,  is  an  American  creation.  It  exists  among  us,  and 
probably  always  will  exist.  If  you  would  do  your  full 
part  as  citizens,  you  must  take  a  hand  in  it.  You  must 
not  stay  in  your  club,  where  you  meet  only  neighbors  with 
tastes  like  your  own ;  but  you  must  go  to  the  primaries, 
and  rub  shoulders  with  all  sorts  of  men.  The  caucus  is 
indeed  no  ideal  institution.  It  is  a  human  device,  an 
imperfect  method  of  evolving  the  best  sentiment,  a 
machine  which  often  works  mischief  and  scandal.  It 
sometimes  brings  to  the  front  the  men  who  make  a  trade 
of  politics,  —  men  whom  you  would  not  trust  with  any 
serious  responsibility  in  ordinary  affairs.  It  is  often 
swayed  by  mere  prejudice  and  jealousy,  by  the  love 
of  winning,  —  indeed,  by  all  sorts  of  impulses  which  have 
in  them  no  patriotism  whatever.  You  will  often  go  home 
disgusted,  resolving  that  you  will  never  find  yourself  in 
such  a  place  again.  But,  after  all,  your  accusations 
against  the  caucus  are  against  universal  suffrage,  even 
against  human  nature.  The  caucus  is  human  life  over 
again,  with  all  the  weakness,  the  short-sightedness,  and  the 
selfishness  of  men  as  revealed  in  all  human  activities. 
You  will  find,  however,  that  if  yourselves  and  others  like 
you  attend  the  primary  meetings  habitually,  —  not  once 
in  three  or  four  years  only,  but  always,  —  you  will  have 
your  way  four  times  out  of  five.  The  man  of  intelligence 
and  character  and  singleness  of  purpose  has  indeed  only 
one  vote  like  his  fellows ;  but  there  is  a  power  other  than 
numerical  behind  that  vote.  It  carries  along  with  it  men 
who  have  faith  in  him,  and  who  trust  his  superior  knowl- 
edge and  his  public  spirit.  Natural  leadership  asserts 
itself  in  the  caucus  as  everywhere  else. 

I  do  not  enjoin  absolute  obedience  to  the  caucus  major- 
ity. Ordinarily  those  who  enter  it  take  their  chances,  and 
must  abide  the  result:  they  cannot  rightfully  do  otherwise 


328  THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 

from  caprice,  disappointment,  or  mere  preference  for 
another  candidate.  But  if  the  caucus  puts  before  the 
electors  dishonest  men,  those  who  are  incompetent  or 
otherwise  unfit,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  good  citizen  by 
all  means  in  his  power  to  compass  their  defeat.  It  is 
no  cant,  but  solemn  truth,  to  say  that  the  obligations  of 
manhood  and  patriotism  must  always  transcend  those  of 
caucus  and  party. 

Let  me  say  to  you,  gentlemen,  who  once  British  sub- 
jects are  now,  or  are  shortly  to  become,  American  citizens, 
that  in  this  transfer  of  allegiance  you  take  no  step  down- 
ward. Rather  should  you  feel  like  rising  to  a  higher  con- 
sciousness as  the  sharer  of  graver  responsibilities,  and  the 
inheritor  of  nobler  attributes.  Alone  among  great  civil- 
ized nations  our  form  of  government  is  settled  beyond 
controversy  or  question.  We  are  not  like  unhappy  France, 
vexed  with  monarchists  and  revisionists,  with  pretenders 
royal  or  military.  We  are  not  like  England,  facing  prob- 
lems of  federation  and  the  reconstruction  of  one  legis- 
lative house.  Our  American  commonwealth  since  the 
Civil  War  is  no  longer  treated  as  an  experiment ;  it  came 
out  of  that  fiery  trial  unified  and  consolidated,  with  an  *• 
august  future  before  it.  This  faith  is  not  born  of  enthu- 
siastic optimism  or  a  self-confident  patriotism ;  it  is  the 
testimony  of  foreign  observers.  In  an  interview  with 
Kossuth  at  Turin,  some  sixteen  years  ago,  he  said  to  me : 
"  You  have  been  through  a  bath  of  blood  ;  you  have  come 
out  of  it  with  glory.  You  will  yet  be  a  people  of  a  hun- 
dred millions ;  and  whether  you  will  or  not,  you  will  have 
to  bear  your  part  in  the  world's  destiny." 

A  recent  English  critic,  Mr.  Bryce,  doing  in  a  measure 
what  De  Tocqueville  did  nearly  sixty  years  ago,  while 
not  overlooking  dangerous  tendencies  among  us,  comes  to 


THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 


329 


the  same  favorable  conclusion.  But  such  a  future  pre- 
supposes a  public  spirit,  a  patriotism  ever  constant  and 
vigilant.  An  ideal  constitution  is  as  waste  paper  without 
aright-minded  people  behind  it;  and  on  the  other  hand 
a  people  such  as  laid  the  foundations  of  New  England  will 
work  successfully  almost  any  scheme  of  government,  and 
evolve  from  it  order,  liberty,  and  progress.  The  character 
of  a  people  and  their  civil  polity  will  naturally  react  upon 
each  other ;  but  the  former  is  the  vital  force,  and  is  sure 
to  come  out  victor  in  the  end. 

There  is  no  nobler  title  than  that  of  American  citizen. 
Twice  only  before  in  history  has  there  been  a  designation 
at  all  comparable  with  it.  The  Roman  found  protection 
wherever  he  followed  the  eagles  of  the  Republic  or  the 
Empire,  from  the  Euphrates  in  the  far  east  to  the  British 
Islands  in  the  far  west.  The  Apostle's  words,  "  I  appeal 
unto  Caesar,"  silenced  the  governor  of  Judea,  and  carried 
the  prisoner  to  the  feet  of  the  emperor  at  Rome.  In 
modern  times,  something  of  the  same  universality  of 
empire  has  been  realized  by  Great  Britain,  —  "a  power 
which,"  as  Mr.  Webster  said,  "has  dotted  over  the  sur- 
face of  the  whole  globe  with  her  possessions  and  military 
posts ;  whose  morning  drum-beat,  following  the  sun  and 
keeping  company  with  the  hours,  circles  the  earth  with 
one  continuous  and  unbroken  strain  of  her  martial  airs." 

But  American,  unlike  Roman,  citizenship  signifies  at 
last  the  freedom  of  all  men,  —  no  enslavement  of  captives, 
but  equality  of  rights,  irrespective  of  race,  nativity,  or  reli- 
gion. Unlike  British  citizenship,  it  signifies  no  privileged 
orders,  no  primogeniture  or  entails,  no  union  of  Church 
and  State,  no  hereditary  throne  and  peerage.  Apart  from 
European  complications,  with  no  standing  army  and  no 
need  of  one,  with  our  magnificent  domain  bounded  by  the 
oceans,  with  the  traditions  of  noble  ancestors  before  us, 


33O  THE   ADOPTED   CITIZEN. 

with  opportunities  for  enterprise  and  education  opening 
everywhere,  it  is  for  us  to  carry  human  well-being  to  its 
highest  attainable  point.  It  is  for  you  who  are  joining  the 
ranks  of  American  citizens  to  assist  in  this  grand  consum- 
mation. For  you  is  a  heritage  such  as  has  fallen  to  no 
people  before;  and  God  grant  you  the  will  to  preserve 
and  perpetuate  it  for  yourselves  and  your  posterity  ! 


The  following  letter  regarding  the  foregoing  address  is  from  the 
then  President  of  Cornell  University,  New  York :  — 

CORNELL  UNIVERSITY,  ITHACA,  N.  Y., 
July  9,  1890. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  PIERCE,  —  What  a  good  sensible  address  this  is 
of  yours  on  the  "Adopted  Citizen"!  I  wish  that  every  English 
subject  in  this  country  might  read  it,  for  it  would  do  them  and  the 
country  great  good  in  many  ways. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

ANDREW  D.  WHITE. 


MARATHON   AND   CHATTANOOGA. 


XVI. 

MR.  PIERCE  is  a  member  of  the  Ben  Stone,  Jr.,  Post  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  Dorchester,  Mass.  On  Memorial 
Day,  May  30,  1890,  in  the  First  Parish  Church  of  Dorchester,  he 
was  the  chosen  orator  of  the  occasion. 


MARATHON   AND   CHATTANOOGA. 

COMRADES,  —  We  meet  again  on  this  May  day  to 
commemorate  our  dead  comrades  who  served  in  the  Civil 
War.  We  come  not  as  mourners,  but  rather  to  rejoice 
that  such  as  they  have  lived.  We  dedicate  the  day  to 
patriotism,  to  our  common  country,  and  to  the  free  insti- 
tutions which  we  have  inherited  from  our  fathers.  The 
sentiments  which  unite  us  as  one  people  under  one  gov- 
ernment gain  new  vigor  and  life  as  we  stand  by  the  head- 
stones of  those  who  served  well  in  the  great  civil  conflict 
of  the  world's  history,  and  pay  our  tribute  to  them  in  this 
sacred  place.  We  come  here  with  no  sense  of  triumph 
over  fellow-countrymen ;  and  wherever  those  once  arrayed 
against  us  celebrate  to-day  the  devotion  of  fathers,  brothers, 
and  sons  who  fought  for  what  they  believed  to  be  right, 
we  send  them  our  fraternal  greetings,  bidding  them  only 
to  serve  with  us  in  the  future  for  the  common  Union  and 
the  common  Liberty.  The  country  of  Washington  is  their, 
country  not  less  than  ours.  For  them,  as  for  us,  are  all 
the  promises  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  all  the 
guarantees  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The 


332        MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA. 

boon  of  the  final  result  was  more  to  them  than  to  us ;  for 
it  made  them  a  free  people,  and  took  away  the  only  im- 
pediment to  their  progress. 

It  has  been  my  fortune,  within  little  more  than  a  twelve- 
month, to  stand  on  two  renowned  fields  of  war  where  human 
destinies  were  at  stake ;  the  one  ancient  and  distant,  and 
the  other  modern  and  within  less  than  two  days'  journey, 
—  Marathon  and  Chattanooga.  Divided  though  they  are 
in  time  by  twenty-three  and  a  half  centuries,  they  may  be 
placed  together  in  their  relation  to  the  permanent  interests 
of  mankind.  The  one  arrested  the  triumphal  march  of 
Oriental  despotism  over  Europe;  the  other  arrested  the 
progress  of  American  slavery  on  this  continent,  and  in- 
sured the  perpetuity  of  this  Republic. 

On  a  summer-like  day  of  April  of  last  year,  after  a  drive 
from  Athens  of  twenty  miles,  with  Hymettus  on  the  right 
and  Pentelicus  on  the  left,  I  stood  and  meditated  on  that 
plain,  six  miles  in  length  and  two  in  breadth,  looking  out 
across  the  strait  on  Eubcea,  encircled  by  rugged  moun- 
tains, treeless,  marshy  at  the  sides,  covered  with  vineyards 
in  the  centre,  —  the  field  where,  five  hundred  years  before 
the  Christian  era,  ten  thousand  Athenians,  with  one  thou- 
sand volunteers  from  Plataea,  charged  on  Persians  more 
than  ten  times  their  number,  and  drove  them  to  the  sea. 
Byron,  lover  of  Greece  and  familiar  with  the  place,  has 
described  — 

"  The  flying  Mede,  his  shaftless  broken  bow; 
The  fiery  Greek,  his  red  pursuing  spear; 
Mountains  above,  Earth's,  Ocean's  plain  below; 
Death  in  the  front,  destruction  in  the  rear  ! 
Such  was  the  scene." 

A  mound  rises  on  the  plain,  its  only  elevation,  raised  by 
the  Greeks  to  commemorate  their  fallen  heroes  whom  they 


MARATHON   AND   CHATTANOOGA. 


333 


buried  there.     Their  commander  was  Miltiades,  supported 
by  Themistocles  and  Aristides. 

The  devotion  of  the  Greeks  on  that  day — of  common 
soldiers  and  their  chiefs  —  saved  not  only  their  country, 
but  Europe  also,  from  the  Asiatic  hordes  that  threatened 
civilization  itself.  The  Persians  had  overrun  the  East; 
one  empire  after  another  had  fallen  before  them, — 
Lydian,  Syrian,  Armenian,  Babylonian,  Egyptian;  they 
were  masters  of  India  and  of  the  countries  to  ^the  north, 
and  they  now  threatened  Europe  as  it  was  threatened  a 
thousand  years  later  by  the  Moslems.  Greece,  narrow  in 
territory,  limited  in  resources  and  men,  but  brave  and 
skilful  in  arms,  held  the  outpost ;  and  at  Marathon  she 
arrested  the  career  of  Asiatic  despotism.  Nor  was  this 
her  only  achievement  on  that  field.  What  she  then  did 
has  ever  since  been  an  inspiration  to  mankind.  Valor, 
patriotism,  self-devotion,  displayed  on  one  day  and  in  one 
country,  are  an  example  for  all  time  and  for  all  men.  A 
modern  writer,  Mr.  Creasy,  who  has  described  in  a  volume 
the  "  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World,"  beginning 
with  Marathon,  including  Saratoga,  and  ending  with  Water- 
loo, says  of  the  first :  "  It  secured  for  mankind  the  intellec- 
tual treasures  of  Athens,  the  growth  of  free  institutions, 
the  liberal  enlightenment  of  the  Western  world,  and  the 
gradual  ascendency  for  many  ages  of  the  great  principles 
of  European  civilization." 

But  we  need  not  go  to  antiquity  or  to  remote  lands  to 
find  examples  of  heroism,  or  to  stand  on  fields  where  the 
interests  of  mankind  were  at  stake.  We  have  had  such 
examples  among  us,  those  we  have  known  and  loved,  and 
whom  we  now  honor  ;  and  there  are  many  fields  in  our 
country  where  fidelity  and  courage,  no  less  than  those  of 
Marathon,  were  displayed  in  our  Civil  War.  Ours,  too, 
was  a  cause  wide-reaching  in  its  relations  to  humanity. 


334        MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA. 

A  few  weeks  ago  I  saw,  for  the  first  time,  Chattanooga, 
—  presenting  a  scene  more  picturesque  than  Marathon, 
where  issues  were  decided  greater  than  those  which  hung 
on  the  day  when  Greeks  confronted  Persians.  It  is  an 
opening  six  miles  square,  not  much  larger  than  the  plain 
of  Marathon,  where  the  view  from  below  is  circumscribed 
by  the  mountains  (the  Cumberland)  which  divide  the 
cotton  from  the  grain-growing  States, —  a  great  bulwark 
of  Nature%broken  "here  by  the  Tennessee  River,  where  it 
makes  that  curve  which  gives  to  the  land  it  almost  encir- 
cles the  shape  of  an  Indian's  moccasin.  It  is  a  splendid 
amphitheatre,  —  mountains  above  and  around,  and  the 
winding  river  below.  Here,  where  high  ranges  cluster, 
the  three  great  States  of  Tennessee,  Georgia,  and  Ala- 
bama join  hands.  Here  is  all  the  romance  of  Nature,  — 
precipitous  heights,  lonely  valleys,  tortuous  streams,  fit  re- 
treats in  other  days  of  the  eagles  and  the  Indians,  and  still 
haunted  by  the  red  men's  legends.  The  time  had  come 
when  this  scene  was  to  have  an  interest  apart  from  Nature, 
and  far  more  than  Nature  in  all  her  wildness  could  give  it, 
as  a  decisive  field  for  the  cause  of  Liberty  and  Union. 
Here  converged  two  lines  of  railway,  —  one  connecting 
the  Mississippi  with  the  Atlantic,  and  the  other  connect- 
ing the  North  with  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  It  was  a  great 
strategic  centre,  essential  to  the  unity  of  the  Confederacy 
and  to  the  easy  transportation  of  soldiers,  munitions  of 
war,  and  supplies  from  one  part  of  its  territory  to  another. 
Here  our  armies  mustered  from  remote  fields  of  war,  — 
from  the  Mississippi,  the  Cumberland,  the  Potomac ;  sol- 
diers from  the  West  and  soldiers  from  the  East, —  to 
maintain  the  unity  of  the  Republic  at  its  vital  and  central 
point. 

This  territory,  smaller  than  many  of  our  New  England 
towns,  bears  the  battle-names  of  Chickamauga,  Wauhatchie, 


MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA.        335 

Missionary  Ridge,  and  Lookout  Mountain.  It  is  illustrated 
by  the  devotion  of  Union  soldiers  led  by  Rosecrans,  How- 
ard, Geary,  Schurz,  Sheridan,  Hooker,  Thomas,  Sherman, 
Grant.  Here  are  the  graves  of  thirteen  thousand  Union 
soldiers,  and  of  as  many  more  who  fought  bravely  on  the 
other  side.  Among  the  wounded  on  one  of  these  fields 
was  one  of  my  college  mates,  the  colonel  of  the  Thirty- 
third  Massachusetts,  General  A.  B.  Underwood, a  sol- 
dier and  citizen  as  finely  tempered  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
and  who  lived  till  a  recent  period.  It  was  at  Missionary 
Ridge,  November  25,  1863,  where  one  hundred  thousand 
men,  counting  both  sides,  were  engaged,  that  the  rebel 
forces  were  beaten,  and  the  way  opened  to  Atlanta  and  the 
final  dismemberment  of  the  Confederacy. 

Rarely  in  modern  warfare  has  there  been  so  much  of 
romance  as  in  this  interesting  locality.  Pitched  battles  by 
light  of  day  there  were;  but  not  these  alone.  Pontoon 
bridges  were  laid,  and  bodies  of  troops  crossed  and 
descended  rivers  in  darkness,  moving  so  noiselessly  as  not 
to  startle  the  pickets  on  the  banks ;  fierce  onsets  at  night 
under  a  sky  lit  by  moon  and  stars,  or  beclouded ;  charges 
in  the  mist  by  day;  soldiers  discovering  comrade  and 
enemy  by  the  flash  of  muskets;  a  thousand  bayonets 
gleaming  in  the  sun  as  the  fog  lifted ;  the  climbing  of 
precipices  in  face  of  deadly  volleys  of  musketry ;  and  most 
remembered  of  all,  the  dauntless  Hooker  and  his  men 
fighting  "  above  the  clouds,"  —  a  warfare  miscellaneous 
and  romantic,  such  as  has  never  been  witnessed  within 
reach  of  the  eye,  from  a  single  point,  anywhere  in  the 
world. 

The  contest  here,  as  elsewhere  in  our  Civil  War,  was  not 
between  a  superior  and  an  inferior  race,  between  armies 
differing  in  arms,  in  drill,  and  in  chiefs;  but  on  both  sides 
there  was  the  same  people,  of  the  same  fibre  and  blood, 


336        MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA. 

practised  in  the  same  kinds  of  warfare,  and  inheriting  the 
same  soldierly  qualities,  with  leaders  taught  in  the  same 
schools  and  by  the  same  masters.  It  was  not  the  vigorous 
European  pitted  against  the  worn-out  Asiatic,  an  army  of 
freemen  against  an  army  of  slaves,  modern  artillery  and 
firearms  against  primitive  spears ;  but  it  was  a  contest  in 
which  each  side  matched  the  other,  except  as  one  or  the 
other  might  at  the  time  have  the  advantage  of  position  or 
supplies  or  numbers.  What  was  done  at  Marathon  —  a 
handful  of  Greeks  routing  a  horde  of  Persians  —  was  not 
possible  in  our  Civil  War. 

This  national  triumph  led  to  social  and  political  changes 
of  transcendent  importance.  It  is  not  military  transactions 
alone  which  concern  the  spectator  who  takes  the  view  from 
Lookout  Mountain  to-day.  The  eye  catches  from  that 
elevation  glimpses  of  seven  States,  —  Tennessee,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  the  two  Carolinas,  Virginia,  and  Kentucky;  a 
territory  which,  including  Virginia  as  she  was  when  un- 
divided, comprehends  three  hundred  and  thirty-eight  thou- 
sand square  miles,  more  than  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  empire  of  Germany  united.  Their  population  in 
1860  was  seven  millions  and  a  half;  it  is  now,  or  soon  will 
be,  double  that  number.1  Thirty  years  ago  Chattanooga 
was  a  quiet  hamlet  of  two  thousand  people  ;  it  is  now  a 
city  of  fifty  thousand  or  more  inhabitants,  ambitious  for 
supremacy  as  the  first  city  of  the  Southwest.  By  its  rail- 
ways it  stretches  out  its  hands  in  every  direction  ;  it  is  a 
great  centre  of  traffic ;  it  has  a  various  manufacturing 
industry;  it  is  a  storehouse  of  mineral  products;  it  ex- 
hibits, instead  of  the  dead  stillness  before  the  Civil  War, 
the  life,  the  hope,  the  enterprise  of  the  most  aspiring  cities 
of  the  Northwest.  Its  people  are  covering  with  homes  the 

1  The  population  of  these  States,  with  their  boundaries  as  in  1860,  was  in 
1890  more  than  twelve  millions,  according  to  the  census  of  that  year. 


MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA. 


337 


sides  of  the  mountain,  where  railways  are  running  to  the 
summit;  and  villages  are  rising  where  once  contending 
armies  met. 

In  those  seven  States  seen  from  Lookout  Mountain  there 
were  in  1860  more  than  two  and  a  half  millions  of  slaves; 
now  there  is  not  a  slave  within  their  borders.  Those  who 
were  then  bought  and  sold  are  now  citizens,  masters  of 
their  time,  earners  of  wages,  pupils  and  teachers  in  free 
schools,  and  voters  at  the  polls.  Chattanooga  has  two 
schools  for  colored  children,  containing  fifteen  hundred 
pupils.  The  colored  man  votes  as  freely  there,  and  his 
vote  is  counted  as  honestly,  as  with  us.  He  is  paid  for  his 
labor,  and  is  more  prosperous  than  the  workingmen  of  a 
great  portion  of  Europe.  In  considerable  districts  the 
conditions  of  the  colored  population  are  less  favorable; 
but  in  view  of  the  marvellous  transformation  which  has 
taken  place  so  generally  in  the  South  I  have  faith  that 
time  and  patience,  education  and  enterprise,  will  renovate 
the  whole.  What  one  sees  from  Lookout  Mountain  typ- 
ifies the  South  as  it  is  and  is  to  be,  from  the  Potomac  to 
the  Rio  Grande;  and  one  who  stands  there  to  meditate 
asks  himself,  What  has  done  all  this ;  what  has  made  this 
new  departure  in  history;  what  has  given  to  civilization 
on  this  continent  this  new  start,  this  new  direction?  The 
answer  is  at  hand.  The  change  did  not  come  from  a  mere 
conflict  of  arms.  War  alone  is  a  calamity,  not  a  boon;  it 
ravages  and  desolates ;  it  spoils  the  husbandman,  destroys 
capital,  reduces  population,  deteriorates  manly  growth, 
and  demoralizes  peoples,  conqueror  and  conquered  alike: 
but  a  war  with  ideas  and  principles  at  stake  may  greatly 
develop  and  advance  humanity,  —  and  such  was  ours. 

Whatever  interest  may  attach  to  marches  and  battles, 
war,  it  must  ever  be  remembered,  is  never  justifiable  ex- 
cept as  a  last  resort  in  saving  some  great  cause,  in  pro- 


338        MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA. 

moting  some  great  idea.  John  Bright  once  said  to  me, 
"If  ever  a  war  was  just,  it  was  your  Civil  War;  "  and 
what  is  it  that  distinguishes  our  Civil  War  from  the  bloody 
conflicts  which  fill  the  pages  of  history?  It  was,  in  the 
first  place,  the  cause  of  the  Union,  —  the  cause,  as  it  has 
been  called,  of  "  an  indestructible  Union  of  indestructible 
States."  Here  was  a  country  vast  indeed  in  extent, 
stretching  from  ocean  to  ocean  through  twenty-three  par- 
allels of  latitude,  divided  at  one  time  among  several  dis- 
coverers, —  England,  France,  and  Spain ;  but  wide  as  it 
was,  it  was  nevertheless  stamped  with  physical  unity,  no- 
where cut  asunder  by  barriers  not  yielding  readily  to 
modern  enterprise  and  skill;  traversed  by  rivers  which 
from  source  to  mouth  were  made  for  one  sovereignty; 
peopled  for  the  most  part  by  one  race,  speaking  one  lan- 
guage, holding  the  same  religion,  governed  by  one  law, 
inheriting  the  same  traditions,  reared  under  republican 
forms,  —  all  sharing  in  the  memories  and  glories  of  the 
American  Revolution,  and  revering  the  exalted  name  and 
character  of  Washington.  The  Mississippi  and  its  great 
tributaries  could  never  be  shared  in  peace  by  rival  nations : 
the  Father  of  Waters  must  flow  unvexed  by  their  strifes  to 
the  sea.  Above  all,  the  experiment  of  self-government  on 
this  continent  was  to  be  a  failure,  "  a  lost  cause,"  if  the 
Republic  were  once  cut  in  twain,  and  the  way  opened  to 
other  divisions  between  East  and  West,  ending  no  one 
could  tell  when  or  where.  The  cause  of  Union  was  there- 
fore not  one  of  territory,  of  empire,  of  dominion,  —  it  was 
the  cause  of  free  government,  of  American  hopes  and  des- 
tiny, of  civilization. 

The  Revolution  which  divided  us  from  Great  Britain 
made  us  a  nation,  free  and  independent;  but  the  pride, 
the  affections,  the  loyalty  of  the  people  for  a  long  period 
gathered  about  the  States,  themselves  the  successors  of 


MARATHON  AND  CHATTANOOGA. 


339 


the  colonies.  The  sentiment  of  common  nationality,  weak 
at  the  beginning,  comparatively  weak  even  when  the  Con- 
stitution was  made,  advanced  from  year  to  year,  —  imper- 
ceptibly at  times,  but  now  and  then  with  rapid  strides 
under  favoring  events. 

As  our  commercial  relations  extended,  the  flag  of  the 
Union  became  the  symbol  of  protection  to  the  American 
citizen  wherever  in  foreign  lands  business  or  adventure 
might  call  him.  The  War  of  1812  quickened  the  senti- 
ment of  Union.  The  insubordination  of  South  Carolina 
called  for  General  Jackson's  proclamation,  with  the  mem- 
orable words,  "  The  Federal  Union !  it  must  and  shall  be 
preserved."  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  read  by  all  citi- 
zens and  declaimed  in  ten  thousand  schools,  lifted  the 
people  to  a  conception  of  national  unity.  Thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  Fourth  of  July  orations  —  sometimes 
of  real  merit,  often  turgid  and  vainglorious  —  have,  together 
with  the  festivities  of  that  anniversary,  done  much  to  in- 
spire the  people  with  a  love  of  their  past  history,  and  with 
confidence  in  the  future  of  the  Republic.  At  last  came 
the  great  conflict  in  which  fought  side  by  side  soldiers 
of  all  the  States,  with  their  flags  intermingled,  tramping 
together  in  long  marches,  communing  by  the  same  camp- 
fires,  moving  together  in  steady  phalanx  when  the  final 
order  of  "  Charge  "  was  given,  sharing  in  common  glories 
and  buried  in  common  sepulchres,  —  making  the  Union 
of  the  States  and  of  the  people  thereof  not  only  grander 
in  our  imagination,  but  dearer  than  ever  in  our  hearts. 
My  comrades,  it  is  our  happy  fortune  to  have  lived  in 
this  period  of  a  broader  patriotism  and  an  intenser  national 
spirit,  and  to  have  borne  our  part  in  making  that  patriot- 
ism and  that  national  spirit  what  they  are  to-day. 

But  our  cause  was  not  that  of  Union  only,  it  was  the 
cause  of  Liberty  as  well.  Our  fathers  did  the  best  they 


34O  MARATHON   AND   CHATTANOOGA. 

could  under  the  lights  they  had ;  but  inheriting  slavery, 
they  were  compelled,  as  they  thought,  to  tolerate  it  as  a 
local  institution,  hoping  and  believing  that  it  would  soon 
pass  away.  In  this,  however,  their  foresight  was  at  fault. 
The  one  institution  which  they  supposed  to  be  temporary 
proved  to  be  a  permanent  cause  of  division.  It  increased 
in  power  and  numbers  with  the  production  of  the  great 
Southern  staples  of  cotton  and  tobacco,  and  with  the  ex- 
pansion of  our  territory.  Its  supporters  grew  in  pride 
and  ambition,  and  at  last  sought  to  make  it  perpetual, 
and  to  spread  it  beyond  its  old  limit,  even  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Thwarted  by  a  popular  uprising  in  1854,  when 
they  had  achieved  their  triumph  in  repealing  the  anti- 
slavery  restriction  (the  bargain  by  which  they  gained  a 
slave  State  in  1820),  they  plotted  a  revolution  ;  and  finally, 
in  1861,  they  struck  boldly,  at  the  national  existence. 
When  the  Civil  War  began,  the  idea  prevailed  with  con- 
servative leaders  that  the  national  power  —  our  armies  in 
the  field  and  our  navy  on  the  coast  —  must  be  confined 
solely  to  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  leaving  untouched 
the  institution  of  slavery.  But  Providence  was  wiser  than 
great  men ;  it  had  purposes  which  even  Lincoln  and 
Seward  did  not  see.  The  contest  was  prolonged,  with 
disaster  here  and  delay  there,  till  the  nation  rose  at  length 
to  see  more  clearly  its  duty  and  its  destiny ;  and  at  last 
came  the  declaration  in  the  name  of  the  American  people, 
their  solemn  resolve  before  Heaven  and  all  mankind,  that 
freedom  for  all  men  of  every  race  should  prevail  every- 
where under  the  American  flag.  Under  that  inspiration 
our  forces  were  led,  and  mankind  came  to  see  our  cause 
in  its  true  light. 

The  Civil  War  did  something  more  than  maintain  the 
principles  of  Union  and  Liberty  :  it  tested  American 
character.  Before  1861  we  were  thought  by  foreign 


MARATHON  AND   CHATTANOOGA. 


341 


critics  to  be  a  money-getting  and  money-saving  people,  — 
thrifty,  mercenary,  skilful  in  mechanic  arts,  energetic  in 
subduing  the  wilderness,  —  but,  with  all  this,  unfitted  for 
high  action,  wanting  in  the  romantic  qualities  which  great 
crises  demand.  Our  republican  polity  was  said  to  be 
plain,  uninspiring,  —  not  appealing  to  the  sensibilities  and 
the  imagination,  like  a  dynasty  decorated  with  crown  and 
sceptre  and  tracing  its  origin  to  a  misty  antiquity.  We 
ourselves  felt  that  there  might  be  some  truth  in  this  state- 
ment of  our  limitations ;  and  this  doubt  accounts  for  the 
disposition  at  the  outset  of  some  of  our  public  men,  patri- 
otic though  they  were,  to  let  the  seceding  States  go  in 
peace.  But  the  war  revealed  the  latent  virtue  and  force 
of  the  American  character,  the  self-devotion,  endurance, 
courage,  and  faith  of  the  American  people,  their  readi- 
ness to  suffer  and  die  for  their  country.  The  four  years 
of  civil  war  are  filled  not  merely  with  what  armies  did,  but 
with  individual  deeds  of  sacrifice  and  daring  equal  to  any- 
thing witnessed  in  the  ages  of  chivalry.  Legend  com- 
memorates the  Roman  who  held  the  bridge ;  but  was  not 
Chaplain  Fuller  more  than  his  peer,  who,  with  no  duty  as 
a  soldier,  volunteered  to  cross  the  Rappahannock  in  face 
of  certain  death?  The  story  of  another  Roman,  whose 
breast  was  covered  with  scars,  has  been  recounted  for 
centuries,  and  is  conned  by  the  schoolboy  to  this  day; 
but  was  hot  he  matched  by  General  Bartlett  whom  we 
have  known,  and  by  countless  others?  We  are  familiar 
with  the  Spartan  mother  and  the  Roman  matron ;  but  we 
have  seen  mothers,  wives,  and  sisters,  with  no  exceptional 
intelligence  and  sensibility,  bidding  those  dearest  to  them 
go  forth  in  the  service  of  the  country,  bearing  their  soli- 
tude without  a  murmur,  and  waiting,  waiting  long,  for  the 
footsteps  which  were  to  be  heard  no  more.  The  Ameri- 
can woman  in  her  high  sentiment,  in  her  steadfast  faith, 


342 


MARATHON   AND   CHATTANOOGA. 


in  her  resignation  to  bereavement  in  the  cause  of  country, 
passes  to  the  front  among  the  heroines  of  history. 

Comrades,  there  is  no  honor  so  great  as  to  have  served 
in  the  national  army  in  our  Civil  War.  Courage,  self- 
sacrifice,  the  offer  of  life  and  fortune  on  the  altar  of  one's 
country,  have  been  commemorated  in  all  ages  with  tri- 
butes of  honor,  with  statues,  memorial  tablets,  and  grate- 
ful epitaphs ;  and  it  will  be  for  you  to  remember,  and  for 
posterity  ever  to  bear  witness,  that  the  cause  you  saved 
was  that  of  "  Liberty  and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one 
and  inseparable !  " 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS.  343 


XVII. 

DECEMBER  21,  1892,  Mr.  Pierce  was  again  an  invited  guest  at 
the  annual  dinner  of  the  New  England  Society  of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Hon.  Calvin  E.  Pratt  presided  at  the  dinner;  and  among  other 
guests  present  and  making  speeches  were  Bishop  Phillips  Brooks,1 
Gen.  Horace  Sorter,  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  and  Hon.  Roswell  E. 
Horn  One  of  the  regular  toasts  was  to  the  memory  of  George 
William  Curtis,  who  died  August  31,  1892  ;  and  to  this  Mr.  Pierce 
responded. 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

YOUR  committee  will  bear  me  witness  that  I  accepted 
reluctantly  the  assignment  which  was  made  to  me  for  this 
evening,  taking  it  only  when  others  better  fitted  were  not 
obedient  to  the  summons. 

George  William  Curtis,  though  living  and  doing  his 
work  as  one  of  the  great  metropolis,  was  in  all  respects  a 
New  England  man.  He  was  born  in  Providence,  under 
the  shadow  of  its  college.  The  blood  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Massachusetts,  and  no  other,  mingled  in  his  veins. 
His  education,  so  far  as  schools  taught  him,  was  acquired 
only  in  those  States,  —  in  Providence,  West  Roxbury, 
and  Concord.  His  marriage  brought  him  into  kinship 
and  close  fellowship  with  a  well-known  family  of  Boston. 
His  later  summers  were  passed  in  his  rural  home  at  Ash- 

i  This  was  Bishop  Brooks's  last  participation  in  a  secular  public  meet- 
ing. He  died  January  23,  1893. 


344  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

field,  where  he  mingled  freely  with  the  townspeople,  vil- 
lagers and  yeomen,  enjoying  the  almost  unmatched  scenery 
of  western  Massachusetts.  His  most  intimate  friend,  the 
companion  of  his  vacation  rambles,  was  Charles  Eliot 
Norton,  —  a  name  long  identified  with  Harvard  College. 
His  ideals  were  New  England  men,  —  Sumner,  Phillips, 
Bryant,  and  Lowell ;  all  subjects  of  his  eulogies.  He  had 
departed  from  the  traditional  faith  of  New  England,  but 
none  the  less  was  he  in  perfect  sympathy  with  the  Puritan 
character,  which  he  testified  on  different  occasions,  notably 
in  his  eulogy  on  General  Sedgwick.  Is  it  too  much  to 
claim,  merchants  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  that  he 
showed  New  England  sense  of  honor  when,  with  a  perse- 
vering devotion  recalling  Walter  Scott's,  he  toiled  for 
many  years  to  pay  debts  which,  though  not  binding  in 
law,  he  thought  binding  in  conscience? 

It  was  well  for  Curtis,  it  was  well  for  you,  it  was  well  for 
mankind,  that  he  brought  his  gifts  and  inspirations  to  the 
multitudinous  life  of  New  York,  to  this  great  centre  of  in- 
tellectual and  commercial  activity.  Here  was  an  ampler 
opportunity,  here  a  more  commanding  watch-tower. 
Here  too,  perhaps,  was  a  better  field  for  the  development 
of  the  germs  of  character  within  him  ;  for,  as  I  said  to  you 
some  years  ago,  and  still  verily  believe,  better  than  a  New 
Englander  at  home  is  a  New  Englander  transplanted. 
But,  absorbed  as  he  became  in  great  interests  here,  he  was 
ever  true  to  his  origin  and  early  associations,  —  always 
ready  with  good  offices  to  Brown  University,  which  had 
sheltered  him  for  only  a  year;  to  the  many  New  England 
friends  who  sought  him  often  for  help  and  counsel ;  to  his 
neighbors  in  "  Arcadia,"  to  whose  annual  feast  his  silver 
tongue  gave  a  peculiar  zest,  and  who  in  tender  gratitude 
came  to  Staten  Island  to  lay  a  memorial  wreath  on  his 
bier. 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 


345 


No  one  can,  I  think,  undertake  with  confidence,  certainly 
I  cannot,  to  define  what  place  Curtis  is  to  hold  in  the  his- 
tory of  American  literature ;  but  I  feel  assured  that  it  will 
be  a  high  and  lasting  one.  We  have  grown  wiser,  and  are 
to  grow  wiser  still,  concerning  Egypt  and  Syria,  under  the 
guidance  of  savants  and  explorers  like  Maspero  and  Petrie; 
but  we  shall  always  delight  to  gaze  betimes  on  those  fath- 
erlands of  history  and  religion  with  the  dreamy  eyes  of 
Howadji.  For  each  of  us,  with  his  own  Prue  by  his  side, 
there  will  ever  be  a  fascination  drawing  us  to  watch  with 
interest  the  passing  Aurelia,  a  vision  of  the  life  outside  our 
own,  or  to  loiter  awhile  in  our  far-off  "  castles  in  Spain." 
The  Potiphars  and  their  familiars  are  permanent  creations ; 
and  with  the  vices  which  wait  on  enormous  wealth  and 
unrestrained  luxury,  that  remarkable  passage  on  "  The 
Decadence  of  the  Romans,"  suggested  by  Couture's  pic- 
ture, will  remain  an  impressive  warning,  however  opti- 
mistic men  may  be.  Curtis's  satire,  unlike  that  of  the 
ancients  and  of  many  moderns,  was  never  darkened  by 
self-love  and  misanthropy  ;  it  was  always  benevolent.  He 
was  like  the  kindly  surgeon  who  feels,  even  more  keenly 
than  his  patient,  the  wound  by  which  he  hopes  to  cure. 

But  Curtis  was  made  of  too  fine  stuff  to  continue  long  in 
reveries  upon  society.  The  Age  called  him  to  more  seri- 
ous work,  and  he  obeyed  the  summons.  His  was  a  clarion 
voice  in  1856,  appealing  to  the  cultivated  youth  of  Amer- 
ica to  enlist  in  the  great  conflict  of  patriotism  and  humanity. 
From  that  time  forward  he  was  a  living  force  and  energy 
in  American  politics,  —  a  force  and  energy  which  will  abide 
to  inspire  this  and  coming  generations.  What  he  wrote 
and  spoke  for  thirty-five  years,  —  the  thoughts  of  the 
"  Easy  Chair,"  playful,  critical,  contemplative,  reminiscent; 
how  through  the  Journal  of  Civilization,1  in  weekly  minis- 

1  Harper's  Weekly. 


346  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

trations,  he  pointed  the  millions  of  his  countrymen  to 
purer  politics,  to  a  more  enlightened  patriotism,  to  a 
soberer  sense  of  civic  duties,  to  an  ethical  comprehension 
of  all  that  concerns  conduct  and  life,  — this  and  more  than 
this  thoughtful  men  now  see,  and  faithful  history  will  re- 
cord. He  wrote  no  line  which,  dying,  he  could  wish  to 
blot ;  he  wrote  much  which  after-times  will  not  willingly 
let  die.  He  might  challenge  criticism  in  the  words  he 
spoke  of  Bryant :  "  Does  any  memory,  however  searching 
or  censorious,  recall  one  line  that  he  wrote  which  was 
not  honest  and  pure ;  one  measure  that  he  defended 
except  from  the  profoundest  conviction  of  its  usefulness 
to  the  country  ;  one  cause  that  he  advocated  which  any 
friend  of  liberty,  of  humanity,  of  good  government,  would 
deplore  ?  " 

Emphasis  is  justly  laid  on  what  Curtis  did  as  a  journal- 
ist; but  what  he  did  as  a  public  speaker  was  not  less  im- 
portant. His  appeals  to  cultured  men,  as  at  Middletown 
and  Providence;  his  lectures  before  hundreds  of  lyceums; 
his  commemorative  orations  ;  his  eulogies  on  great  char- 
acters; his  political  addresses;  his  successive  pleas  for 
civil-service  reform,  —  how  stimulating  and  elevating  were 
all  these,  not  merely  to  listening  audiences,  but  not  less  so 
to  the  greater  multitude  who  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
found  hope  and  inspiration  in  his  magnetic  words !  The 
well-thought  essay  may  have  power,  but  the  distant  reader 
feels  it  all  the  more  when  he  realizes  that  it  has  been  heard 
and  applauded  in  Faneuil  Hall  and  Cooper  Institute. 
There  is  a  tendency  in  our  time  to  decry  eloquence ;  and 
it  has  been  said,  foolishly  indeed,  that  the  age  of  the  ora- 
tor has  passed.  Some  of  you  still  remember  the  marvel- 
lous addresses  of  Louis  Kossuth,  forty  years  ago,  on  Staten 
Island  and  at  Castle  Garden ;  and  I  recall  freshly  the  scene 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  where  he  stood  as  an  historic  figure.  A 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS.  347 

year  ago  last  September,  in  a  half-hour  interview  with  him 
in  his  chamber  at  Turin,1  when  he  had  just  entered  on  his 
ninetieth  year,  I  said  to  the  aged  exile  that  his  eloquence 
still  had  its  spell  on  the  American  memory ;  but  he  re- 
pelled the  compliment,  remembering  sadly  how  vain  had 
been  his  prayer  for  intervention  against  Russia,  and  quoted 
"  words,  words,  words,"  as  if  from  Emerson,  but,  as  I  fancy, 
from  Hamlet's  answer  to  Polonius.  I  cannot,  however, 
yield  even  to  the  authority  of  one  who  ranks  foremost 
among  the  masters  of  eloquence  in  this  century.  The 
time  will  never  come  in  a  free  country  when  the  human 
voice  will  not  give  fresh  power  to  argument,  to  noble  pas- 
sion, to  patriotic  and  spiritual  appeals. 

Who  of  us  can  ever  forget  the  charming  presence  of  our 
friend  as  he  stood  before  the  people,  the  glass  of  fashion 
and  the  mould  of  form,  —  "a  figure,"  as  he  called  another, 
"of  patrician  port  and  sovereign  grace,"  —  his  features 
finely  chiselled,  his  elegant  pose  and  classic  gesture,  his 
richly  modulated  voice  ringing  out  in  clear  and  earnest 
tone  the  duties  of  citizens  and  men  ;  always  friendly,  always 
sympathetic,  always  loyal  to  the  purest  taste.  I  have  him 
now  in  my  mind's  eye  as  he  stood,  a  fellow-member  with 
myself,  in  the  Republican  National  Conventions  of  1860, 
1876,  and  1884,  —  in  the  last  two  the  most  attractive  per- 
sonality, and  in  all  summoning  his  party  to  maintain  its 
fealty  to  the  cause  of  equal  rights  and  the  highest  standards 
of  public  life.  Here  with  you,  as  on  other  festive  occa- 
sions, he  seasoned  the  banquet  with  his  wit,  always  refined, 
never  coarse  or  commonplace.  You  were  not,  as  he 
spoke,  waiting  with  expectant  lips  and  hands  to  respond 
to  the  next  jest;  but  when  one  came,  spontaneous,  un- 
forced, fresh  from  the  mine,  set  in  finest  sentiment,  you 

1  Mr.  Pierce  had  a  still  later  interview,  —  October  3, 1893,  —  at  Turin,  with 
Kossuth,  who  died  March  20,  1894. 


348  GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS. 

caught  eagerly  the  gem,  and  you  will  keep  it  precious  in 
your  memory  evermore. 

Curtis  was  a  scholar  of  no  fugitive  and  cloistered  virtue, 
never  slinking  from  the  race,  nor  shirking  dust  and  heat, 
—  but  a  scholar  ever  hopeful,  never  cynical ;  always  in 
touch  with  men,  and  in  sympathy  with  all  seekers  of  truth. 
He  was  a  gentleman,  fair  to  his  antagonist ;  keeping  his 
poise  in  controversy ;  measuring  men  by  their  worth,  never 
by  their  wealth  or  social  rank;  bearing  himself  with  infinite 
courtesy  towards  all  conditions,  as  gracious  to  the  maid 
who  laid  his  morning  meal  as  he  would  have  been  to  a 
princess.  He  was  a  patriot  worthy  to  be  placed  in  our 
noblest  list;  "  a  life  in  civic  action  warm,  a  soul  on  highest 
mission  bent;"  constant  to  the  end,  keeping  ever  the 
heights  which  he  had  gained  from  the  first,  an  example 
of  self-containment  in  an  age  of  unrest;  so  content  with 
his  home  and  work  that  after  his  first  full  draught  of  foreign 
travel  the  Old  World  could  not  tempt  him  again,  —  and 
even  the  mission  to  England,  that  prize  much  coveted  by 
scholars  and  public  men,  when  offered  to  him,  he  waived 
aside  without  regret.  No  whiter  character,  combining 
scholar,  gentleman,  and  patriot,  has  come  in  our  time ; 
and  all  who  have  been  privileged  to  commune  with  him 
will  say  with  William  Winter,  — 

"  Yet  I  hold  my  life  divine, 
To  have  known  a  soul  like  thine." 

It  was  our  hope  and  prayer  that  he  would  be  permitted 
to  pass  the  limit  which  the  Psalmist  assigns  to  manly  life. 
Time  decorates  a  youth  and  prime  like  his.  There  awaited 
him  the  consciousness  of  years  well  spent,  of  duty  well 
done,  — 

"  And  that  which  should  accompany  old  age, 
As  honor,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends." 


GEORGE   WILLIAM   CURTIS.  349 

But  leaving  us  now  or  spared  longer,  he  might  say  with 
confidence,  as  James  Montgomery,  dear  to  Christendom 
for  his  hymns,  said  in  closing  his  long  and  troubled  career 
as  a  journalist, — 

"  I  followed  no  mighty  leader,  belonged  to  no  school,  pandered 
to  no  impure  passion ;  I  veiled  no  vice  in  delicate  disguise,  grati- 
fied no  malignant  propensity  to  personal  satire,  courted  no  power- 
ful patronage.  I  wrote  neither  to  suit  the  manners,  the  taste,  nor 
the  temper  of  the  age ;  but  I  appealed  to  universal  principles,  to 
imperishable  affections,  to  primary  elements  of  our  common  nature, 
found  wherever  man  is  found  in  civilized  society,  wherever  his 
mind  has  been  raised  above  barbarian  ignorance,  and  his  passions 
purified  from  brutal  selfishness." 

Gentlemen  of  the  New  England  Society,  have  I  colored 
the  picture  too  highly?  I  think  not.  Are  there  limitations 
omitted  which  I  ought  to  state?  I  do  not  know  them. 
What  I  have  said  is  not  a  youth's  hero-worship,  but  the 
sober  judgment  of  a  man  of  mature  years,  speaking  from 
profound  conviction  of  one  whom  he  knew  well. 


350  JOHN   JAY. 


XVIII. 

THE  Evangelical  Alliance  of  the  United  States  held  a  memorial 
meeting  in  New  York  City,  November  20,  1894,  in  honor  of  John 
Jay,  who  died  May  5,  1894.  President  Seth  Low  was  the  chair- 
man of  the  meeting  ;  and  Joseph  H.  Choate,  Chauncey  M.  Depew, 
Bishop  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  and  Edward  L.  Pierce  were  the 
speakers.  Mr.  Pierce,  who  had  maintained  most  friendly  relations 
with  Mr.  Jay  for  many  years,  had  been  assigned  the  part  of  describ- 
ing his  career  as  a  reformer,  and  spoke  as  follows  :  — 


JOHN   JAY. 

NEW  ENGLAND  joins  cordially  in  this  commemoration 
of  John  Jay.  My  own  friendship  with  him  was  one  of 
thirty  years ;  and  during  that  time  I  never  heard  from  his 
lips  a  word  unworthy  of  a  pure  and  noble  spirit.  It  was  a 
privilege  to  be  admitted  to  communion  with  such  a  man, 
—  a  privilege  for  which  I  expect  to  be  accountable  here- 
after. When  in  a  European  capital  I  heard  of  his  death 
the  day  after  the  event,  I  mourned  not  that  the  summons 
had  come  at  last  to  this  patient  and  heroic  sufferer,  but 
rather  that  he  had  left  behind  so  few  survivors  of  his  tem- 
per and  purpose.  We  have  no  regrets  now  that  he  has 
passed  from  us ;  for  with  his  work  well  done  he  has  gone 
to  dwell  in  men's  memories  with  the  wise  and  good,  leav- 
ing behind  a  character  for  a  perpetual  inspiration  and 
example. 

My  part  this  evening  is  not  to  review  his  life,  or  to  de- 
scribe him  as  a  citizen  and  public  man,  but  to  speak  of  him 


JOHN  JAY.  251 

only  as  a  reformer.  And  yet  in  a  large  sense  his  whole 
career  opens  before  us  in  that  one  word.  It  is  the  work 
of  the  reformer  to  make  things  better  than  they  are,  or 
to  strive  to  that  end ;  and  that  was  Jay's  aspiration  and 
effort,  from  youth  to  his  latest  hour.  What  one  of  us, 
visitors  to  his  chamber  in  home  or  hospital  for  the  last 
four  years,  has  not  marvelled  to  see  how  keen  he  still  was 
for  every  contest  of  patriotism  and  humanity,  ever  ready, 
leaping  from  his  bed,  to  — 

"  Shoulder  his  crutch,  and  show  how  fields  are  won." 


Having  finished  his  professional  studies,  Jay  entered  in 
1839,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  on  active  life;  but  already 
as  a  college  student,  in  1834,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he 
openly  espoused  the  Antislavery  cause,  writing  in  its  be- 
half, associating  in  the  councils  of  its  promoters,  and  on 
the  alert  to  protect  the  Abolitionists  who  were  assailed  by 
mobs.  Taught  by  his  father,  Judge  William  Jay,  —  as  the 
junior  Pitt  had  been  taught  by  his,  still  "  young  in  years, 
but  in  sage  counsel  old,"  -  —  he  brought  to  the  conflict  a 
precocious  wisdom.  He  rejected  at  the  outset  the  futile 
remedy  of  colonization,  and  planted  himself  on  the  firm 
ground  that  immediate  and  unconditional  emancipation 
was  the  dictate  alike  of  justice  and  prudence.  Co-worker 
with  his  father,  he  made  a  strenuous  effort  to  advance  the 
Antislavery  movement  within  Constitutional  lines,  and  to 
keep  it  clear  of  the  vagaries  —  non-resistance  and  the  like 
—  which  beset  it  at  this  early  stage.  He  sought  to  make 
the  United  States  Constitution  an  antislavery  force,  in- 
stead of  proclaiming  a  crusade  for  its  destruction;  and 
while  exposing  the  shortcomings  or  hostile  attitude  of 
church  organizations,  he  avoided  all  offence  to  the  relig- 
ious sentiment, — striving  to  make  that  sentiment,  what  it 


352  JOHN   JAY. 

proved  to  be,  the  best  ally  of  his  cause.  He  saw  what  a 
tremendous  force  moral  agitation  always  is  among  a  civil- 
ized and  Christian  people;  but  he  saw,  too,  how  vain  it 
becomes  in  an  assault  on  a  political  institution,  unless  it 
takes  final  shape  in  political  action.  And  here  he  divided 
at  an  early  day  from  a  considerable  body  of  his  fellow 
Abolitionists. 

Consider  for  a  moment  what  was  the  period  —  that  of 
1830  to  1840 — in  which  this  young  man  made  choice  of 
his  career.  The  , American  people,  absorbed  in  material 
progress,  were  loath  to  be  disturbed  in  that  repose  on  the 
slavery  question  which  followed  the  Missouri  Compromise 
of  1820.  Political  parties,  ecclesiastical  bodies,  mercantile 
interests,  society  in  the  great  cities,  the  conservative  spirit, 
—  all  were  arrayed  against  a  renewal  of  the  strife.  Anx- 
ious patriots  too,  whose  sincerity  cannot  be  questioned, 
saw  in  such  an  agitation  the  spectre  of  warring  States  and 
a  dissevered  Union.  The  Abolitionists,  who  entered  about 
1830  on  an  organized  warfare  against  American  slavery, 
encountered,  as  they  might  have  expected,  a  determined 
resistance  from  all  these  powerful  organs  of  opinion  and 
action.  They  had  indeed  great  allies,  — "  exultations, 
agonies,  and  man's  unconquerable  mind."  They  had  on 
their  side  the  sanctions  of  religion,  the  imperishable  in- 
stincts of  our  common  nature,  and  the  godspeed  of  a  far- 
sighted  patriotism.  They  might  count,  as  the  apostles  of 
a  holy  cause  may  always  count,  on  final  triumph;  but  the 
immediate  prospect  was  discouraging.  Their  warnings 
and  appeals  were  answered  with  derision,  contempt,  and 
personal  abuse;  and  their  adversaries  were  not  content 
with  such  weapons  alone.  Their  persons  were  assaulted, 
their  homes  attacked,  their  halls  and  churches  burned, 
their  printing-presses  shattered  into  fragments  or  thrown 
into  rivers,  their  public  meetings  broken  up,  their  schools 


JOHN   JAY.  353 

for  colored  children  suppressed  (as  in  Connecticut  and 
New  Hampshire),  and  a  price  was  put  on  their  heads  by 
Southern  governors.  The  civil  authorities  dispersed  their 
assemblies,  confessing  inability  to  protect  them  either  by 
the  police  or  the  militia.  The  mob  spirit  in  this  city  did 
not  spare  such  exemplars  of  good  citizenship  and  Christian 
conduct  as  Arthur  and  Lewis  Tappan.  Tampering  with 
the  mails  and  the  exclusion  from  them  of  antislavery  pub- 
lications had  the  approval  of  President  Jackson  and  his 
Postmaster-general.  It  was  proposed  in  high  quarters,  in 
some  Northern  States,  to  punish  Abolitionists  as  criminals 
for  exercising  the  right  of  free  speech ;  and  this  proceed- 
ing had  the  sanction  of  a  Massachusetts  governor,  after- 
wards President  of  Harvard  College.  The  attempt  was 
made  to  proscribe  merchants  and  lawyers  who  protected 
hunted  negroes.  Society  in  the  commercial  centres  put 
the  ban  of  exclusion  on  antislavery  men,  marking  them  as 
vulgar  people,  fanatics,  disturbers  of  the  public  peace, 
enemies  of  religion,  of  order,  and  the  Union.  The  young 
man  who  joined  such  a  body  had  to  put  behind  him  all 
ambition  for  office,  and  to  risk  his  success  at  the  bar  or  in 
trade. 

It  was  a  period  —  "  the  martyr  age,"  as  Harriet  Martineau 
has  called  it  —  when  Lovejoy  perished  at  Alton  in  the  de- 
fence of  a  free  press ;  when  Torrey  languished  unto  death 
in  a  Baltimore  jail  for  aiding  fugitive  slaves ;  when  Jona- 
than Walker,  for  a  like  service  of  Christian  charity,  suffered 
by  the  sentence  of  a  United  States  court  in  Florida  the 
triple  penalties  of  pillory,  imprisonment,  and  branding; 
when  antislavery  men  were  pursued  by  mobs  composed 
of  roughs  and  so  called  "  gentlemen,"  in  the  cities  of  New 
York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia,  and  in  smaller  commu- 
nities like  those  of  Montpelier,  Vt,  and  Utica,  N.  Y. 
Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  the  long  story,  but  enough  has 

23 


354  JOHN  JAY. 

been  said  to  give  a  glimpse  at  the  period  when  he  whom 
we  commemorate  this  evening  came  to  manhood. 

When  Jay  finished  his  law  studies  in  1839,  he  might 
reasonably  have  competed  for  what  the  world  regards  as 
the  most  coveted  prizes.  He  came  of  a  distinguished 
stock,  unsullied  in  each  generation.  He  was  equipped 
with  the  best  training,  academical  and  professional.  He 
had  the  gift  of  rare  manly  beauty,  alike  in  his  youth,  in  his 
prime,  and  to  the  end.  His  presence  in  any  circle  be- 
spoke purity  of  character  and  high  aims.  Society  was 
open  to  him,  —  not  merely  that  which  the  "  Potiphar 
Papers  "  describe  as  recalling  Rome  in  her  decadence,  but 
that  other  society  always  existing  here,  which  combined 
culture,  refined  ways  of  living,  love  of  art  and  literature, 
and  traditions  of  the  colonial  period.  There  was  no  place 
at  the  bar  or  on  the  bench  to  which  he  might  not  have 
fairly  aspired.  The  legislative  hall  at  Albany  or  at  Wash- 
ington was  within  easy  reach.  It  would  have  been  an 
honorable  ambition  as  well  as  a  filial  office  (doubtless  he 
thought  of  it)  to  have  prolonged  in  himself  the  line  of  a 
family  celebrated  in  the  public  life  of  the  country.  Before 
this  young  man,  on  the  one  side,  were  these  seductions  so 
potent  in  human  life;  and,  on  the  other,  the  forlorn  hope 
of  a  small  and  hated  band  of  men  and  women  who  had 
sworn,  with  God's  help,  at  some  early  or  remote  day,  to 
banish  American  slavery  forever  from  this  land.  And 
what  was  his  choice?  Turning  his  back  on  all  temptations 
of  success  and  worldly  favor,  he  gave  himself  to  this  cause, 
choosing,  like  him  whom  Michael  Angelo  has  carved  in 
marble,  "  rather  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God, 
than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season."  Such  a 
choice  was  in  noble  accord  with  the  high  spirit  of  the 
poet  who  wrote,  — 


JOHN   JAY.  3,55 

"  Once  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  the  moment  to  decide, 
In  the  strife  of  Truth  with  Falsehood,  for  the  good  or  evil  side. 

Then  to  side  with  Truth  is  noble  when  we  share  her  wretched  crust, 
Ere  her  cause  bring  fame  and  profit,  and  't  is  prosperous  to  be  just ; 
Then  it  is  the  brave  man  chooses,  while  the  coward  stands  aside, 
Doubting  in  his  abject  spirit,  till  his  Lord  is  crucified, 
And  the  multitude  make  virtue  of  the  faith  they  had  denied." 

New  York  has  in  all  periods  of  American  history  given 
other  great  names  to  the  country,  —  Stuyvesants,  Van 
Renssalaers,  Schuylers,  Livingstons,  Hamiltons,  Clintons, 
Van  Burens ;  but  what  young  man  bearing  any  of  these 
names  made  such  a  choice  as  Jay's? 

It  is  beyond  my  limits  to  mention  in  detail  Jay's  services 
by  pen,  voice,  and  personal  influence  to  the  Antislavery 
cause,  from  his  college  days  to  its  triumph  thirty  years 
later  in  the  Civil  War.  Those  services  were  various  and 
continuous,  including  papers  and  addresses  against  the 
existence  of  slavery  in  the  Territories  and  the  District  of 
Columbia;  on  judicious  political  action  against  the  insti- 
tution ;  the  duty  of  the  American  Tract  Society  to  give  no 
support  to  slaveholding  in  its  publications  ;  the  admission 
of  colored  students  to  theological  schools,  and  of  colored 
churches  to  the  councils  of  his  own  sect;  the  duty  of 
clergymen  to  preach  against  slavery;  the  duty  of  the 
church  to  which  he  belonged  to  bear  public  testimony 
against  the  slave-trade,  of  which  just  before  the  Civil  War 
this  city  had  become  a  principal  depot.  His  own  church, 
in  which  he  made  many  of  these  efforts,  was  the  most 
conservative  of  all,  with  a  membership  which  combined 
fashion,  respectability,  and  wealth.  The  attempt  was  made 
again  and  again  to  suppress  him  by  parliamentary  expe- 
dients;  but  he  managed  in  one  way  or  another  to  be 
heard.  He  was  steadily  and  almost  unanimously  voted 


356  JOHN   JAY. 

down ;  but  such  was  his  undaunted  pluck  that  he  returned 
to  the  contest  at  the  very  next  opportunity.  His  figure 
in  these  scenes,  where  he  stood  alone,  or  almost  alone, 
will  continue  to  be  one  of  historic  interest  Later,  as  the 
contest  drew  near  its  end,  he  maintained  emancipation  as 
the  true  policy  of  the  national  government,  and  promoted 
the  enlistment  of  colored  men  as  Union  soldiers. 

In  all  his  later  years  Jay  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
education  of  the  freedmen.  He  did  not,  like  most  political 
leaders,  care  for  them  only  as  a  political  force  capable  of 
determining  national  and  State  elections.  He  believed 
it  to  be  a  prime  necessity  that  they  should  be  trained  to 
be  good  citizens,  so  that  they  might  maintain  their  own 
rights  and  secure  the  respect  of  the  white  people  of  the 
South.  Therefore  he  was  the  advocate  of  national  grants 
in  aid  of  education  in  sections  of  the  country  where  illiter- 
acy prevails.  Three  months  before  the  disability  which 
withdrew  him  from  active  life,  he  appeared  before  the 
Mohonk  Conference  on  the  negro  question,  and  pleaded 
for  a  formal  expression  in  favor  of  the  measure.  There 
was  a  difference  of  opinion,  and  no  such  expression  was 
then  made.  I  recall  the  scene,  and  also  his  disappoint- 
ment. The  next  year,  however,  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
announcing  to  him,  as  he  lay  in  St.  Luke's  Hospital,  that 
the  second  conference  (in  which  I  had  taken  part)  had 
come  to  his  position. 

It  is  rare  that  a  reformer  is  so  self-effacing  as  was  Jay. 
In  1844,  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  this  young  man,  un- 
aided and  alone,  organized  a  public  meeting  in  this  city  as 
a  protest  against  Calhoun's  treaty  for  the  annexation  of 
Texas,  —  a  treaty  negotiated  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
a  perpetual  slave-empire  on  this  continent.  He  placed  in 
the  chair  Albert  Gallatin,  last  survivor  of  Jefferson's  Cabi- 


JOHN  JAY. 

net,  and  divided  the  officers  of  the  meeting  equally  be- 
tween the  two  great  political  parties,  excluding  his  own 
name  from  any  public  mention  in  connection  with  the 
meeting.  Two  only  of  these  officers,  so  far  as  I  know, 
survive,  —  your  honored  fellow-citizens,  Benjamin  D.  Silli- 
man  and  John  Bigelow.  Ten  years  later  he  initiated  and 
organized  a  meeting  held  at  the  Broadway  Tabernacle,  — 
the  first  meeting  called  in  the  free  States  to  protest  against 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  opening 
of  Kansas  and  Nebraska  to  slavery.  Here  again  he 
divided  the  officers  of  the  meeting  equally  between  the 
two  principal  political  parties,  taking  himself  no  open  part 
in  the  proceedings. 

Jay's  defence  of  fugitive  slaves  in  the  courts  is  alone  suf- 
ficient to  entitle  him  to  lasting  gratitude.  The  leaders  of 
the  bar  shrank  from  such  a  service  ;  public  opinion  frowned 
on  resistance  to  the  pretensions  of  Southern  claimants; 
judges  and  marshals  were  unfriendly,  and  often  more  than 
unfriendly;  there  was  no  fund  to  pay  fees  and  expenses; 
the  lawyer  who  habitually  undertook  the  defence  lost  caste, 
and  sometimes  found  himself  under  the  ban  of  commercial 
opinion  and  deprived  of  the  earnings  essential  to  the  sup- 
port of  his  family.  But  Truth  is  never  without  her  witnes- 
ses, and  able  lawyers  came  to  the  succor  of  this  despised 
race,  —  as  Salmon  P.  Chase  and  John  Jolifife  in  Cincinnati ; 
David  Paul  Brown  in  Philadelphia;  Samuel  E.  Sewall, 
Robert  Rantoul,  and  Richard  H.Dana  in  Boston;  and 
John  Jay,  Joseph  L.  White,  and  E.  D.  Culver  in  New  York. 
Posterity  will  place  these  men  in  that  noble  company  of 
lawyers  who  have  vindicated  liberty  and  justice,  along  with 
Papinian  who  accepted  a  martyr's  fate  rather  than  justify 
an  imperial  fratricide.  Adams,  in  his  Life  of  Dana,  says 
that  holding  in  his  hand  the  record  of  his  defence  of  fugi- 
tive slaves,  Dana  might  "  stand  with  head  erect  at  the  bar 


358  JOHN   JAY. 

of  final  judgment  itself;  "  and  who  can  doubt  that  when 
Jay  took  his  place  before  that  august  tribunal,  if  he  needed 
witnesses,  certifiers  to  his  life  of  duty  on  earth,  he  found 
them  at  once  in  the  dark-skinned  bondmen  whose  freedom 
he  had  chivalrously  maintained? 

After  all,  are  there  any  honors  more  assured  than  those 
which  crown  the  benefactors  of  oppressed  races?  The 
highest  tribute  which  Lamartine  pays  to  Washington  is, 
that  when  he  presented  himself  before  his  Maker  he  held 
in  his  hands  the  broken  fetters  of  his  fellow-men,  whom  he 
had  by  will  emancipated.  The  visitor  to  Westminster 
Abbey  pauses  by  the  statue  of  Fox,  who  is  commemorated 
not  as  the  prosecutor  of  Hastings  or  the  rival  of  Pitt  in 
great  debates,  but  with  the  grateful  negro  kneeling  by  his 
side;  and  not  far  off  are  the  monuments  of  Wilberforce, 
Granville  Sharp,  Zachary  Macaulay,  and  Fowell  Buxton. 
Our  own  Lincoln  is  figured  in  public  squares  not  as  direct- 
ing armies  and  cabinets,  but  rather  as  the  emancipator  of 
slaves. 

In  all  Jay's  connection  with  grave  or  burning  questions 
he  left  nothing  to  be  recanted  or  explained, — no  com- 
promise with  wrong;  no  position  hostile  to  freedom  or 
good  government ;  no  deviation  at  any  time  from  the 
straight  path  of  duty;  no  unjust  aspersion  on  adversaries; 
nothing  in  word  or  act,  privately  or  publicly  said  or  done, 
which  in  the  last  moments  of  his  life  he  needed  to  expunge 
or  qualify.  One  who,  like  myself,  has  followed  his  pri- 
vate correspondence  with  a  distinguished  contemporary1 
for  a  long  period,  feels  confident  in  the  statement  which 
I  now  make. 

Controversy  never  embittered  Jay  towards  antagonists. 
Antislavery  man  as  he  was  from  the  beginning,  he  strove 
after  the  Civil  War  as  a  commissioner  from  this  State  to 

1  Charles  Sumner. 


JOHN   JAY. 


359 


have  a  section  of  the  cemetery  at  Antietam  set  apart  for 
the  Confederate  dead,  encountering  ungenerous  criticism 
for  his  magnanimity ;  and  as  President  of  the  Union 
League  Club  he  argued  that  hospitality  should  be  ac- 
corded to  Confederate  soldiers  and  citizens  who  had 
accepted  the  results  of  the  war.  Those  at  whom  his 
keenest  thrusts  were  made  were  fascinated  by  his  sin- 
cerity and  good  humor.  Very  late  in  his  life,  as  he  was 
being  wheeled  on  the  sidewalk  of  Fifth  Avenue,  a  Catho- 
lic priest  whom  he  had  not  before  known  stopped  his  in- 
valid carriage,  and  introducing  himself  said :  "  Mr.  Jay, 
you  have  said  some  hard  things  about  my  Church  ;  but  I 
know  you  are  honest,  and  I  wish  you  well." 

Jay  was  no  self-seeker.  He  was  never  a  candidate  for 
an  elective  office  when  his  party  had  the  slightest  chance 
of  success.  He  lived  always  in  this  city,  or  a  suburban 
county,  where  his  views  were  disapproved  by  the  majority. 
When  the  Republicans  achieved  success  in  1860,  it  would 
have  been  most  fitting  that  he  should  be  called  to  a  foreign 
mission,  —  a  service  in  which  his  name  in  an  earlier  gen- 
eration had  been  distinguished,  and  for  which  he  himself 
was  so  well  equipped.  But  in  the  competition  he  was  dis- 
tanced by  another,  to  the  great  regret  of  many  of  us.  He 
felt  keenly  the  postponed  opportunity ;  but  he  did  not  re- 
pine, and  gave  himself  to  all  the  duties  of  patriotism  which 
fell  in  his  way.  I  can  testify,  from  a  reading  of  his  letters 
at  the  time,  with  what  a  manly  spirit  he  bore  the  disap- 
pointment. The  deserved  honor  was  not  to  be  conferred 
till  eight  years  later. 

Another  enterprise  of  public  concern  occupied  Jay's 
serious  attention  in  the  later  period  of  his  life.  The  re- 
former is  apt  to  feel  that  nothing  more  remains  to  be  done 
when  the  work  which  enlisted  his  youthful  fervor  has  been 


360  JOHN   JAY. 

consummated.  The  Antislavery  cause  took  hold  of  the 
deepest  passions  and  sentiments  of  human  nature,  and  it 
was  not  easy  for  those  who  had  carried  it  to  triumph  to 
devote  themselves  afterwards  to  public  questions  of  a 
practical  and  business  character.  Jay,  however,  did  not, 
on  his  return  from  the  mission  to  Austria  in  1875,  settle 
down  into  an  inglorious  repose.  The  Civil  Service  re- 
form was  then  in  an  early  stage,  and  he  enlisted  at  once 
in  the  ranks  of  its  supporters.  This  cause  does  not  tempt 
the  politician.  It  runs  counter  to  partisanship,  to  low 
ambitions,  and  the  greed  for  office.  Its  advocates  are 
often  pitied  as  attempting  the  impossible,  or  derided  as 
sentimental,  visionary,  and  unpractical.  Nevertheless,  few 
are  hardy  enough  to  question  seriously  the  principles  of 
public  morality  on  which  this  reform  is  founded,  or  the 
wisdom  of  the  statesmanship  which  promotes  it;  and  at 
its  head  stands  one  name  which  challenges  universal  re- 
spect, —  that  of  the  late  George  William  Curtis.  As 
member  of  a  commission  appointed  in  1877  by  President 
Hayes  to  investigate  the  methods  of  the  New  York  Cus- 
tom House,  Jay  urged  in  successive  reports  its  reorgani- 
zation on  a  strictly  business  basis,  and  the  entire  divorce 
of  the  service  from  party  politics.  From  1883  to  the  end 
of  1887  he  was  a  member  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission 
of  this  State,  the  first  of  the  kind  created  by  any  State,  — 
being  called  to  it  by  Governor  Grover  Cleveland,  and  re- 
tired from  it  by  Governor  David  B.  Hill.  Such  was  the 
confidence  in  his  fairness,  that,  while  he  was  the  only  Re- 
publican member,  his  two  Democratic  associates  made 
him  the  chairman  of  the  board  for  the  entire  period  of  his 
service.  He  was  active  in  the  direction  of  the  National 
Civil  Service  Reform  League,  of  which  Mr.  Curtis  was 
the  head,  from  its  formation  until  he  was  prostrated  by 
the  injury  which  at  length  proved  fatal.  He  contributed 


JOHN   JAY.  36l 

two  important  papers  to  the  literature  of  the  league,  — 
one  on  the  systematic  questioning  of  candidates  for  office 
as  to  their  proposed  action  on  the  reform ;  and  the  other 
invoking  the  co-operation  of  the  clergy  in  its  behalf.  In 
these  different  positions  he  did  not  shrink  from  drudgery, 
wearisome  attention  to  details,  and  conflicts  with  the  ene- 
mies of  the  reform.  When  this  cause,  which  is  steadily 
advancing,  shall  finally  prevail,  as  it  surely  will  in  the 
civil  service  of  the  Nation  and  the  States,  history  will  place 
the  name  of  John  Jay  on  the  list  of  its  earliest  and  most 
constant  supporters. 

Jay's  example  as  a  reformer  is  a  precious  inheritance. 
It  bids  us  stand  by  every  good  cause,  however  hopeless 
the  outlook.  It  summons  us  to  the  protection  of  op- 
pressed races  and  classes,  —  the  Italian  massacred  in  New 
Orleans;  the  Chinaman  massacred  in  Wyoming;  the  In- 
dian, still  the  victim  of  the  white  man's  greed ;  the  Afri- 
can, still  untaught  and  often  unshielded  by  the  law;  the 
Armenian,  now  being  slaughtered  for  his  religion,  as  of 
old  were  the  Vaudois  of  the  Alps ;  the  Jew,  forced  into 
exile  by  a  merciless  despot.  It  teaches  also  what  a  good 
man  may  do  as  a  private  citizen  to  advance  his  country 
and  mankind.  That  lesson  is  ever  recurring,  and  has  just 
been  taught  in  the  most  impressive  manner;  for  within  a 
stone's  throw  of  this  hall,  civic  fidelity,  self-abnegation, 
and  heroism  in  a  righteous  crusade  have  been  for  the  last 
two  years  exemplified  in  a  Christian  minister,1  who,  with- 
out office,  with  no  party  behind  him,  and  against  sneers 
and  calumny  and  distrust,  fought  his  way  to  the  public 
respect  and  gratitude,  till  he  became  the  recognized  leader 
of  that  army  of  honest  citizens  who  have  redeemed  this 
noble  city,  and  whose  triumph  has  given  hope  to  the 
friends  of  good  government  everywhere, 
i  Rev.  Charles  H.  Parkhurst. 


362  COMPLETION  OF  THE   SUMNER  MEMOIR. 


XIX. 

COMPLETION  OF  THE   SUMNER  MEMOIR. 

THE  last  two  volumes  of  Mr.  Pierce's  Memoir  of  Charles 
Sumner  were  published  in  April,  1893 ;  and  he  left  home  the 
next  summer  for  a  year's  visit  to  Europe.  During  his  absence, 
surviving  friends  of  Sumner  —  among  them  Senator  George  F. 
Hoar,  Ex-Governor  William  Claflin,  and  others  devoted  to  his 
memory  —  arranged  a  commemoration  of  the  final  completion  of 
the  biography.  A  dinner  "commemorative  of  Charles  Sumner 
and  complimentary  to  Edward  L.  Pierce  "  was  served  at  the  Parker 
House,  Boston,  December  29,  1894.  The  committee  in  charge  con- 
sisted of  William  Claflin,  George  F.  Hoar,  Alanson  W.  Beard,  Francis 
V.  Balch,  and  George  A.  O.  Ernst.  At  the  close  of  the  dinner,  Ex- 
Governor  Claflin  called  the  guests  (ninety-four  in  all)  to  order,  and 
invited  Senator  Hoar  to  take  the  chair.  The  speakers,  besides 
the  senator,  were  Governor  Greenhalge  (then  in  office,  and  rep- 
presenting  the  State),  Ex-Governor  Alexander  H.  Rice,  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  John  Winslow,  Rev.  Elmer  H.  Capen,  and  Arnold 
B.  Johnson.  Letters  regretting  inability  to  attend  were  received 
from  George  W.  Julian,  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  Fred- 
erick Douglass,  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale,  John  Bigelovv,  John  D.  Long, 
William  E  Chandler,  James  B.  Angell,  Bishop  F.  D.  Huntington, 
Frank  B.  Sanborn,  James  B.  Thayer,  Justin  Winsor,  Rev.  John  W. 
Chadwick,  Professor  James  O.  Murray,  Milton  M.  Fisher,  and 
Chauncey  L.  Knapp.  Mr.  Pierce's  speech  and  the  introductory 
remarks  of  the  chairman  are  taken  from  the  pamphlet  report. 

SENATOR  HOAR  :  Charles  Sumner  had  many  friends  who  loved 
him,  and  whom  he  loved.  If  it  had  been  his  privilege  to  choose 
among  them  all  the  name  he  would  like  to  have  linked  with  his 


COMPLETION   OF  THE   SUMNER  MEMOIR.  363 

own  twenty  years  after  his  death,  there  would  have  been  no  one 
he  would  have  preferred  to  that  of  the  guest  of  the  evening.  I 
ask  you,  my  friends,  to  rise  and  drink  to  the  memory  of  Charles 
Sumner,  and  to  the  great  work  of  his  friend  and  biographer. 

The  company  rose,  and  joined  in  drinking  the   toast;   after 
which  the  Senator  added,  — 

I   have   now  the  pleasure  to  present  to  you  Mr.  Edward  L. 
Pierce. 

Mr.  Pierce  spoke  as  follows  :  — 


MR.  HOAR,  GOVERNOR  CLAFLIN,  AND  FRIENDS  : 

IT  has  sometimes  occurred  to  me,  when  taking  part  in  a 
festivity  where  honor  was  being  paid  to  a  particular  guest, 
that  he  must  sit  uneasily  while  others  spoke  his  praises. 
I  have,  however,  to  confess  that  such  an  experience,  which 
is  to-day  my  own,  has  proved  thus  far  rather  a  pleasure 
than  a  pain.  But,  grateful  as  I  am  for  the  pleasant  words 
which  are  being  said  of  myself  and  my  toils,  I  cannot  fail 
to  recognize  that  the  presence  of  this  company  here  is 
not  so  much  a  friendly  testimonial  to  myself,  as  a  tribute 
(using  Milton's  words)  to  the  memory  of  "  a  brave  man 
and  worthy  patriot,  dear  to  God,  and  famous  to  all  ages." 
If  such  commemorations  are  more  frequent  in  this  com- 
munity than  elsewhere,  they  call  for  no  apology.  We  do 
not  envy  sister  States  that  outrun  our  Commonwealth  in 
numbers  and  resources,  for  we  count  always  as  her  most 
precious  possession  the  character,  the  public  service,  and 
the  renown  of  her  sons. 

It  will  be  fifty  years  the  next  Fourth  of  July  that  I  first 
saw  Charles  Sumner.  It  was  in  Tremont  Temple,  when 


364  COMPLETION   OF   THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR. 

he  delivered  his  oration  on  the  "  True  Grandeur  of 
Nations,"  —  an  oration  which  first  made  him  known  to  the 
world.  I  was  a  boy  of  sixteen  from  the  country,  and  was 
passing  the  holiday  in  the  city,  mostly  on  the  Common, 
where,  like  others  of  my  age,  I  indulged  in  cake  and  lemon- 
ade, and  exploded  firecrackers,  spending  in  this  mode  of 
celebrating  the  day  the  one  or  two  ninepences  which  had 
been  allowed  me  for  pocket-money.  Always  interested 
from  boyhood  in  public  speaking,  I  sought  the  Temple, 
having  heard  casually  that  an  address  was  to  be  given 
there.  I  recall  still  the  scene, — the  orator  wearing  a  blue 
dress-coat  with  gilt  buttons,  white  waistcoat  and  trousers  ; 
on  his  right  and  left  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  in  uni- 
form, and  behind  him  a  choir  of  one  hundred  school-girls 
clad  in  white.  I  heard  his  opening  sentences  ;  but  the 
allurements  of  the  Common  proving  stronger  with  me 
than  his  voice,  I  soon  left  the  hall.  Later,  I  returned  in 
time  to  hear  his  tender  tribute  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  which 
perhaps  I  might  now  repeat  with  something  of  his  tone 
and  gesture.  The  vista  of  the  orator's  future  did  not  open 
before  him  at  that  hour  ;  and  least  of  all  did  he  foresee 
that  near  the  entrance  of  the  hall,  in  perhaps  his  youngest, 
certainly  his  obscurest,  listener,  was  one  who  was  there- 
after to  tell  to  mankind  the  story  of  his  career.  Three 
years  later,  in  1848,  —  a  year  which  in  the  Old  World  as 
in  this  was  to  many  a  new  birth  of  thought  and  aspiration, 
—  I  heard  Sumner  in  Faneuil  Hall,  as  he  took  the  chair  at 
a  meeting  called  to  ratify  the  Free  Soil  nominations  of 
Van  Buren  and  Adams,  and  joined  in  the  applause  as  he 
finished,  then  giving  my  first  open  adhesion  to  the  Anti- 
slavery  movement.  By  this  time  I  had  become  an  enthu- 
siast for  him,  and  let  pass  no  opportunity  of  being  present 
at  his  addresses.  I  may  say  here  that  it  is  difficult  at  this 
day  to  realize  the  power  and  inspiration  that  he  was  with 


COMPLETION   OF  THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR.  365 

the  young  men  of  that  period.  This  came  from  the  charm 
of  his  personal  presence,  the  glow  of  his  rhetoric,  the 
mellow  cadences  of  his  far-reaching  voice,  his  unmistakable 
sincerity,  his  courage,  and  his  moral  fervor:  it  was  these 
which  then  swayed  ingenuous  youth.  The  next  year,  when 
I  was  in  college,  forty-five  years  ago  this  month,  I  confessed 
in  a  letter  to  him  my  admiration  of  his  character,  accom- 
panying it  with  some  things  I  had  published,  and  received 
promptly  in  return  an  invitation  to  call  on  him.  I  remem- 
ber freshly  that  first  meeting,  in  his  back  office,  in  No.  4 
Court  Street,  the  site  of  the  present  Sears  building.  To 
me  it  was  a  great  moment ;  and  my  feelings  as  I  entered 
his  room  were  perhaps  not  unlike  those  of  a  lover  on  the 
point  of  making  his  declaration.  His  gracious  welcome 
at  once  put  me  at  ease.  Indeed,  he  had  always  time  for 
young  men,  —  time  to  talk  with  them,  time  to  write  to 
them,  time  to  encourage  in  them  every  prompting  to  intel- 
lectual and  moral  endeavor. 

That  was  the  beginning  of  a  friendship  which  lasted  to 
the  end,  without  the  slightest  break  or  misunderstanding. 
I  delight  to  remember  that  it  was  a  relation  in  which  there 
was  no  thought  of  mutual  gain  or  advantage.  He  never 
assisted  me  to  an  office,  rarely  ever  gave  me  an  introduc- 
tion, and,  so  far  as  I  know,  I  have  never  had  a  dollar  which 
came  to  me,  directly  or  indirectly,  through  him ;  and  yet 
I  can  truly  say,  that  there  was  no  moment  in  that  relation 
of  twenty-five  years  when  I  would  not  have  made  any  sac- 
rifice and  encountered  any  peril  in  his  behalf.  It  is  for 
others  to  say  whether  fidelity  on  my  part  has  been  pro- 
longed beyond  his  life.  Nor  will  I  believe  that  this  devo- 
tion to  him  was  exceptional  with  myself.  Sumner,  as  I 
have  had  occasion  to  say  elsewhere,  stands  alone,  or  almost 
alone,  as 'a  public  man  whose  support  was  in  the  moral 
enthusiasm  of  the  people.  He  had  this  rare  advantage,  — 


366  COMPLETION   OF   THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR. 

that  at  every  critical  point  of  his  career  he  could  rally  to 
his  side  a  host  of  men  to  whom  he  had  never  done  a  favor 
by  help  to  office  or  otherwise,  and  who  expected  no  such 
favor  in  return.  What  a  bulwark  such  a  force  is  to  any 
public  man !  How  far  superior  to  any  army  of  retainers 
and  hustlers ! 

It  is  proper,  in  this  connection,  to  say  that  in  this  inter- 
course between  a  distinguished  public  man  and  one  much 
younger  than  himself  there  was  no  self-assertion  on  the 
one  side  or  unmanly  deference  on  the  other.  I  was  always 
frank  in  questioning  to  his  face  his  position  or  his  action, 
—  as  frank  as  I  could  be  with  any  of  yourselves.  Once  or 
twice,  when  I  was  quite  a  young  man,  others  put  on  me 
the  duty  of  saying  to  him  things  which  they  did  not  like  to 
say  themselves.  He  never  took  offence,  but  always  kindly 
received  such  criticisms.  So  much  for  my  personal  rela- 
tions with  him  of  whom  I  have  written. 

Sumner  in  his  will  designated  Henry  W.  Longfellow, 
Francis  V.  Balch,  and  myself  as  his  literary  executors,  with 
full  power  to  preserve  or  destroy  his  papers ;  but  he  made 
no  suggestion  then  or  at  any  other  time  as  to  the  choice  of 
a  biographer.  That  was  a  matter  which  did  not  seem  to 
concern  him  ;  but  his  interest  centred  in  his  last  years  on 
the  preparation  of  a  complete  edition  of  his  speeches, 
which  he  sometimes  spoke  of  as  his  "  Life."  The  execu- 
tors, myself  as  one  of  them,  invited  several  distinguished 
writers  to  undertake  the  service  ;  and  after  they  had  de- 
clined, the  duty,  by  request  of  my  associates,  fell  to  myself. 
I  began  at  once  to  collect  materials,  at  the  same  time  lay- 
ing aside  my  studies  for  a  law-book  on  which  I  was  then 
engaged.  It  was  fortunate  that  the  work  was  entered  upon 
at  once,  as  otherwise  much  that  was  valuable  would  have 
perished.  Since  then  have  passed  away  his  mates  of  the 


COMPLETION   OF  THE   SUMNER  MEMOIR.  367 

Boston  Latin  School;  the  members  of  his  college  class 
save  one  ; l  the  one  sister  who  survived  him ;  his  early 
friend  and  law-partner,  Hillard ;  most  of  his  associates  in 
the  Senate  (only  Sherman,  Morrill,  and  one  other  still  re- 
maining there)  ;  and  nearly  all  who  were  intimate  with  him 
in  the  earlier  political  conflicts  in  which  he  took  part. 

The  first  two  volumes  of  the  memoir,  which  only  brought 
Sumner  to  July  4,  1845,  the  day  when  his  public  career 
began,  were  published  in  1877.  It  seemed  proper  to  fill 
so  much  space  with  this  early  period,  as  it  covered  his  for- 
eign journey  in  the  years  1838-1840,  and  his  association 
with  the  European  jurists  and  scholars  of  that  time.  The 
last  two  volumes  were  not  published  till  1893,  just  nineteen 
years  after  his  death.  The  task  was  on  my  mind  for  the 
entire  period,  though  for  three  or  four  years  after  the  pub- 
lication of  the  first  two  volumes  I  mostly  suspended  the 
work  in  order  to  finish  my  law-book.  For  about  fifteen 
years  I  devoted  my  time  chiefly  to  the  memoir,  except 
during  such  vacations  and  excursions  to  Europe  as  seemed 
necessary  for  health  and  relaxation.  It  is  difficult  to  com- 
prehend the  labor  in  such  research  before  composition 
begins,  —  forty  thousand  letters  to  Sumner  from  corre- 
spondents to  be  examined,  and  notes  made  from  them ; 
thousands  of  his  own  letters  collected  from  every  quarter, 
and  selections  to  be  made ;  files  of  newspapers  for  thirty 
years  to  be  turned  over,  with  more  or  less  to  be  copied ; 
histories,  biographies,  public  documents,  the  congressional 
debates  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  to  be  studied ;  a  large 
correspondence  to  be  conducted,  and  interviews  to  be 
sought  with  all  contemporaries  who  could  illustrate  or 
freshen  a  narrative  with  their  recollections.  Sometimes  I 
journeyed  to  places  associated  with  interesting  episodes  of 

1  Dr.  Jonathan  F.  Bemis,  the  last  surviving  member  of  the  class  of  1830 
in  Harvard  College,  died  eight  days  after  this  reference  to  him. 


368  COMPLETION   OF   THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR. 

his  life,  —  to  Aix  in  Savoy  and  Montpellier  in  France,  in 
both  of  which  resorts  he  lingered,  waiting  for  the  health 
and  vigor  which  for  nearly  four  years  so  often  retreated  as 
he  thought  himself  about  to  grasp  them.  Nor  in  this  search 
did  I  omit  a  visit  to  the  grave  of  Preston  S.  Brooks  in  Edge- 
field,  S.  C,  being  the  first,  if  not  the  only,  Northern  man 
to  stand  before  the  memorial  stone  of  one  who  imperson- 
ated the  madness  and  desperation  of  a  losing  cause.  Some 
may  think  this  manifold  toil  superfluous  ;  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  biography  and  history  are  of  little  worth  when  the 
writer  shrinks  from  such  drudgery. 

The  manuscript  of  the  last  two  volumes  as  prepared  for 
the  printer  filled  twenty-six  hundred  pages.  All  was  twice 
written,  and  some  parts  three  or  four  times.  Every  page, 
indeed  every  sentence,  was  carefully  weighed,  and  original 
sources  again  and  again  explored  for  verification.  The 
whole  was  read  by  the  late  George  William  Curtis,  who 
advised  the  reduction  of  one  chapter ;  but  otherwise  this 
kindly  critic  made  only  slight  suggestions.  It  was  a  grief 
to  me  that  this  dear  friend  of  my  own  did  not  live  to  greet 
the  publication  of  the  volumes  in  which  he  had  taken  such 
an  earnest  and  prolonged  interest.  I  may  add  that  I  have 
no  faith  in  fine  writing,  or  in  the  inspirations  of  genius,  at 
least  in  historical  composition ;  but  I  believe  profoundly 
in  exhaustive  research  and  painstaking  fidelity  to  truth. 
These  commonplace  virtues  tell  in  the  long  run. 

Sometimes  journalists  and  my  own  friends  have  chided 
me  for  a  too  long  interval  between  the  first  two  and  the  last 
two  volumes ;  and  one  or  more  have  reminded  me  that  a 
final  biographical  sketch  of  myself  was  likely  to  be  called 
for  before  the  completion  of  Sumner's  memoir.  While 
I  was  the  recipient  of  this  friendly  pressure,  I  was  all  the 
while  working  to  the  limit  of  vital  forces,  which,  happily, 
have  been  stronger  with  me  than  with  most  men. 


COMPLETION   OF  THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR.  369 

Necessarily  with  every  biographer  his  own  subject  will 
occupy  the  most  conspicuous  place  in  his  canvas ;  but  it 
is  his  duty  to  do  justice  to  other  characters  of  the  same 
period,  whether  fellow-combatants  or  antagonists.  This  I 
endeavored  to  do,  —  sometimes  assigning  to  one  or  another 
of  Sumner's  contemporaries  the  prime  leadership  in  a  con- 
test in  which  he  also  bore  an  eminent  part.  It  was  a  satis- 
faction to  reveal,  perhaps  more  clearly  than  before,  the 
noble  qualities  of  his  colleague,  Henry  Wilson;  and  to 
bring  to  the  front  the  genuine  patriotism  and  masterly 
ability  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  who,  as  one  of  the  only  two 
Free  Soilers  then  in  the  Senate,  welcomed  as  a  coadjutor 
a  champion  of  freedom  from  Massachusetts. 

There  is  one  duty  of  a  biographer  which  I  regard  as 
supreme.  It  is  to  reveal  fully  his  subject  to  mankind ;  to 
suppress  nothing;  to  avoid  no  part  of  his  career  which 
has  been  exposed  to  criticism.  Two  of  Sumner's  devoted 
friends,  both  scholars  and  poets,  advised  me  to  pass  lightly 
over  two  of  his  controversies,  —  one  with  Winthrop  in 
1846  and  1847,  concerning  the  Mexican  war;  and  the 
other  with  President  Grant's  Administration.  After  re- 
flection, it  seemed  to  me  that  it  was  neither  the  part  of 
courage  nor  of  wisdom  to  maintain  silence  as  to  those 
well-known  events;  and  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  his- 
torian to  tell  not  only  the  truth,  but  the  whole  truth.  I 
confess  that  I  had  many  troubled  thoughts  about  the 
controversy  with  Winthrop,  anxious  as  I  was  to  adhere 
faithfully  to  historical  verity,  and  at  the  same  time  not 
to  wound  the  sensibilities  of  an  aged  man  whose  high 
personal  character  entitled  him  to  sincere  respect.  It 
was  a  relief  to  be  assured  soon  after  the  final  volumes 
appeared,  that,  while  he  might  dissent  on  some  points 
from  my  view  of  those  questions,  he  considered  himself 
courteously  and  fairly  treated. 

24 


3/O  COMPLETION   OF   THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR. 

The  suggestion  has  been  made  that  Sumner's  biography 
is  of  too  ample  dimensions ;  that  life  is  too  short  to  allow 
readers,  even  those  not  overburdened  with  public  or  pri- 
vate cares,  the  time  to  traverse  so  much  ground.  I  was 
quite  well  aware  that  this  objection  might  be  raised,  but 
on  reflection  felt  bound  to  disregard  it.  The  four  volumes 
comprehend  letters  as  well  as  narrative ;  and  they  are  not 
more  voluminous  than  the  memoirs  and  correspondence, 
published  separately  br  together,  of  other  public  men, 
Americans  or  Europeans,  who  have  had  a  long  and  re- 
markable connection  with  public  affairs.  Besides,  a  com- 
plete biography  is  always  a  thesaurus  which  can  be  drawn 
upon  by  the  authors  of  briefer  lives,  more  suited  to  the 
tastes  and  wants  of  readers  who  cannot  spare  the  time  for 
a  full  investigation.  I  recall  with  pleasure  an  encouraging 
message  sent  to  me  by  Senator  Hoar  some  time  after  the 
first  half  of  the  work  appeared,  bidding  me  to  take  all  the 
space  I  required  to  carry  out  my  original  design,  not  with- 
holding a  word  which  the  spirit  moved  me  to  write. 

A  critic  for  a  New  York  city  journal,  probably  wearied 
with  the  multitude  of  books  laid  on  his  table,  and  having 
no  time  to  traverse  the  period  covered  by  my  volumes, 
undertook,  instead  of  reviewing,  to  count,  or  rather  esti- 
mate, the  total  number  of  words  in  the  entire  biography. 
This  was  a  novel  mode  of  treating  historical  composition ; 
and  seeking  myself  a  standard  of  comparison,  I  set  an 
amanuensis  to  computing  the  words  in  a  Sunday  news- 
paper of  thirty-six  or  forty  pages.  The  result  was  instruc- 
tive as  well  as  surprising.  My  four  volumes  were  equalled 
in  the  number  of  words  by  two  and  one  half  copies  of  such 
a  hebdomidal  issue.  I  asked  my  critic  to  consider  whether 
the  product  of  fifteen  years  of  labor  might  not  be  of  as 
much  use  to  posterity  as  two  and  one  half  numbers  of  a 
Sunday  newspaper. 


COMPLETION    OF   THE   SUMNER  MEMOIR.  371 

The  full  study  of  Sumner's  public  life  reveals  what  is 
new  to  many,  —  the  variety  of  the  subjects  which  com- 
manded his  attention,  comprehending  not  only  the  Anti- 
slavery  cause,  of  which  he  was  the  protagonist  in  Congress, 
but  also  foreign  relations  and  nearly  all  domestic  interests 
which  came  up  for  consideration  in  his  time.  On  financial 
measures  he  was  among  the  soundest  of  the  sound ;  and 
on  these  and  other  questions,  some  of  which  combined  a 
moral  as  well  as  a  material  side,  he  escaped  the  vagaries 
and  extravagances  which  have  too  often  disfigured  the 
careers  of  agitators  and  reformers. 

No  public  man,  or  none  except  John  Bright,  has  stood 
as  Sumner  did  for  the  supremacy  of  the  moral  sentiments 
in  government  and  the  intercourse  of  nations.  That  is  to 
be  his  distinctive  place  in  history.  Lord  Brougham  has 
singled  out  as  a  test  of  the  progress  of  our  race  in  wisdom 
and  virtue  its  veneration  in  successive  ages  for  the  name 
of  Washington.  In  like  manner,  will  not  a  measure  of  our 
country's  loyalty  to  the  law  of  right  and  duty  be  found  in 
all  time  to  come  in  its  fidelity  to  the  precepts  and  example 
of  the  statesman  we  are  now  commemorating? 

While  honor  is  justly  paid  to  the  senator  who  for  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  represented  Massachusetts,  to  me 
the  thought  has  ever  been  present  that  like  honor  belongs 
to  the  generation  of  her  people  who  recognized  at  the  out- 
set the  nobility  of  his  character,  and  stood  by  him  faithfully 
to  the  end,  never  failing  him  at  any  hour,  and  supporting 
him  always  in  his  advanced  positions.  In  the  reaction  of 
1862,  when  a  combination  was  made  for  forcing  him  from 
public  life,  he  was  rewarded  with  a  complete  vindication. 
When  at  an  earlier  period  he  was  compelled  by  his  disa- 
bility to  forego  public  duties  for  nearly  four  years,  there 
was  no  murmur  calling  for  a  surrender  of  his  seat.  If  one 
Legislature,  misinterpreting  public  opinion,  passed  on  him 


372  COMPLETION   OF   THE   SUMNER   MEMOIR. 

a  censure,  its  successor  hastened  to  expunge  it.  Fortu- 
nate the  statesman  who  has  such  a  people  behind  him ! 
It  is  doubtful  if  a  career  like  his,  unbroken  and  trium- 
phant to  the  end,  could  have  been  had  elsewhere  than 
in  this  Commonwealth. 

It  is  a  rare  assembly  before  whom  it  is  my  privilege  to 
stand  this  day.  Here  are  citizens  of  honorable  repute  of 
our  own  and  other  States,  some  of  whom  have  borne 
the  insignia  of  high  office,  and  are  to  live  in  the  history 
of  the  country.  I  see  here  and  there  those  to  whom  I 
have  been  bound  for  long  years  by  bonds  of  friendship 
and  community  of  thought.  I  recognize  also  the  faces 
of  old  comrades  who  enlisted  with  me  in  youth  in  the 
cause  of  freedom,  and  who,  after  a  hard-fought  contest 
ending  in  blood,  rejoice  at  last  in  a  redeemed  land,  where 
there  is  no  master  and  no  slave.  Here,  too,  are  veterans 
whose  service  in  its  ranks  had  an  earlier  beginning  than 
my  own.  I  need  hardly  express  to  you,  to  each  and  all, 
my  profound  appreciation  of  the  generous  thought  im- 
plied in  your  presence  on  this  occasion.  You  come  here 
not  to  exult  over  the  issue  of  any  party  contest;  you 
come  to  testify  your  admiration  of  a  great  character,  who, 
you  are  pleased  to  believe,  has  been  well  placed  before 
his  countrymen  and  posterity.  I  am  devoutly  grateful 
to  God  for  having  permitted  me  to  see  the  end  of  my 
appointed  task ;  and  while  life  remains  to  me,  I  shall  cher- 
ish the  memory  of  your  sympathies  and  congratulations. 


TRIBUTE   TO   EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR.        373 


XX. 

AT  a  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  February 
J4>  l895>  of  which  Judge  Hoar  was  for  some  years  a  distinguished 
member,  remarks  were  made  by  several  fellow-members  commem- 
orative of  his  eminent  character.  Among  others  who  spoke,  Mr. 
Pierce  (who  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Society  in  1893) 
the  following  remarks  :  — 


TRIBUTE  TO  EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR. 

IT  is  not  for  me  to  repeat  in  this  presence  the  testimony 
which  has  come  from  others  having  a  longer  or  closer 
connection  than  mine  with  Judge  Hoar;  but  I  crave  the 
privilege  of  sharing  in  this  day's  tribute  to  his  ever-to-be- 
cherished  memory. 

It  is  a  long  career  which  we  contemplate,  begun  with 
promise,  and  continuing  to  the  end  without  an  incident 
which  calls  for  apology  or  explanation.  Judge  Hoar 
developed  in  youth  capacity  for  the  highest  places  in 
his  profession.  He  had  absolute  clearness  of  intellect, 
which,  after  a  keen  sense  of  justice,  is  the  first  quality 
of  a  jurist.  There  was  never  for  a  moment  obscurity 
in  his  mental  vision.  He  held  political  offices  only 
briefly  and  at  long  intervals,  and  these  were  but  epi- 
sodes in  his  life.  It  is  a  public  loss  that  his  service  of 
this  kind  was  so  limited.  But  for  forty  years  politicians 
who  were  plotting  to  suppress  moral  questions  or  to  ad- 
vance their  own  selfish  schemes  had  to  take  him  into 


374        TRIBUTE   TO  EBENEZER   ROCKWOOD   HOAR. 

account.  They  knew  that  there  was  in  Concord  a  man 
with  whom  they  would  have  to  reckon,  —  one  whose 
intelligence  they  could  not  blind,  whose  moral  sense  they 
could  not  tamper  with.  Once,  when  others  slunk  away 
in  fear  and  trembling  from  an  encounter  with  the  most 
audacious  demagogue  of  the  age,  undaunted  he  faced  a 
storm  of  calumny  and  abuse,  with  a  self-consecration  of 
which  there  is  hardly  a  sublimer  instance  in  ancient  or 
modern  story. 

Mr.  Webster  said  on  a  memorial  occasion,  "  One  may 
live  as  a  conqueror  or  a  king  or  a  magistrate,  but  he  must 
die  as  a  man."  With  that  sentiment  in  our  hearts,  we 
shall  not  often  recall  the  well-earned  honors  of  our  de- 
parted associate,  or  the  robes  of  office  which  he  wore 
so  worthily,  but  we  will  keep  fresh  in  mind,  so  long  as 
memory  shall  serve  us,  the  wit  which  sparkled  in  every 
word;  the  conscience  which  governed  every  act;  the 
civic  courage  which  never  quailed  before  authority,  or  the 
civium  ardor  prava  jubentium;  the  affection  for  friends 
which,  outlasting  differences  of  opinion,  was  faithful  unto 
death ;  the  devotion  to  liberty  which  glowed  as  a  perpet- 
ual fire  from  youth  to  age ;  the  simplicity  in  habits  and 
ways  which  became  one  whose  daily  walks  and  drives 
were  on  those  roads  once  trod  by  "  the  embattled  farm- 
ers" of  Concord  and  Lexington;  and  the  patriotism,  pure 
from  ambition  and  self-seeking,  which,  inherited  from  his 
ancestors,  he  has  transmitted  to  his  descendants.  Stand- 
ing as  it  were  before  his  open  grave,  I  may  be  permitted 
to  pronounce,  with  lips  less  worthy  than  his,  the  words  of 
benediction,  hallowed  by  the  ages,  which  came  from  him 
as  he  held  the  hand  of  the  dead  Sumner,  not  yet  cold: 
"  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into 
the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  HISTORY.      375 


XXI. 

THE  following  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  Pierce  before  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society,  March  12,  1896. 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE  OF  HISTORY. 

THE  memory  is,  in  a  strict  sense,  the  basis  of  historical 
narrative.  The  historian  draws  his  materials  from  records, 
newspapers,  diaries,  letters,  and  other  written  or  oral  ac- 
counts ;  but  these  at  first  or  second  hand  come  from  the 
memory.  The  diarist  who  writes  out  at  evening  the  trans- 
actions of  the  day,  puts  in  permanent  form  what  he  remem- 
bers to  have  seen  and  heard  since  morning.  The  general 
who  reports  a  battle  a  day  or  a  week  after  it  took  place, 
relies  on  his  own  recollections  and  those  of  others.  Yet 
the  memory,  without  which  there  could  be  little  knowl- 
edge of  the  past,  is,  even  when  only  a  short  period  of  time 
is  covered,  a  most  uncertain  and  treacherous  faculty;  and 
the  historian  must  keep  its  limitations  constantly  in  mind. 
He  must  not,  indeed,  overlook  other  things,  —  the  honesty 
and  fidelity  of  the  narrator  who  claims  to  have  been  on  the 
spot,  the  accuracy  of  his  perceptions,  and  the  advantage  or 
disadvantage  of  his  standpoint;  but  assuming  these  con- 
ditions to  be  satisfactory,  he  must  still  be  critical,  even 
sceptical,  in  the  treatment  of  testimony ;  and  his  scepticism 
should  be  the  more  exacting  the  longer  the  period  inter- 
vening between  the  transaction  and  the  report. 


376       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A   SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 

This  paper  will  deal  not  with  testimony  given  shortly 
after  the  event,  but  with  recollections  coming  out  several 
years  later,  —  ten,  twenty,  or  fifty;  necessarily  coming, 
where  the  interval  is  long,  from  old  people  whose  other 
faculties  may  be  still  fresh  and  active,  but  whose  memory, 
failing  them  before  a  general  decay  has  set  in,  makes  their 
accounts  worthless,  at  least  in  the  decision  of  any  question 
where  controversy  has  arisen. 

The  honest  man  as  he  advances  in  years  confesses  his 
own  weakness  in  this  respect.  John  Adams,  whose  mood 
was  reminiscent  to  the  last,  writing  when  nearly  seventy- 
nine  years  old  of  the  authorship  of  a  Revolutionary  pam- 
phlet, said :  "  The  Group  has  convinced  me  of  the  decay 
of  my  memory  more  than  anything  that  has  yet  occurred ;  " 
and  later  in  the  same  letter  he  breaks  out  pathetically, 
"  Help  !  oh,  help  my  memory  !  "  l 

One  need  not  be  as  old  as  seventy-nine  to  distrust  him- 
self in  this  respect.  If  any  one  of  us  were  to  have  brought 
to  him  all  his  letters  written  in  youth  and  early  manhood, 
he  would  find  in  them  vivid  pictures  of  some  scenes  which 
he  had  wholly  forgotten,  and  could  not  recall  even  with  the 
assistance  of  the  written  account,  and  of  other  scenes  which 
lay  in  his  mind  very  differently  from  the  way  in  which  he 
described  them  at  the  time. 

Retentiveness  of  memory  varies  greatly  in  persons  of 
equal  intelligence.  Some  retain  only  general  impressions, 
while  others  retain  a  firm  hold  on  details.  When  in  the 
seventies  I  used  to  ask  Mr.  Longfellow  about  things  occur- 
ing  in  the  thirties  and  forties,  he  would  often  say,  "  You 
had  better  ask  Hillard."  The  latter  was  remarkable  for 
the  freshness  and  accuracy  of  his  recollections  ;  and  the 
same  may  be  said  of  the  late  Judge  Hoar. 

1  John  Adams's  Works,  x.  99,  100. 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY.      377 

One  frailty  which  perplexes  advancing  years  is  the  inca- 
pacity to  distinguish  between  what  one  has  seen  and  what 
one  has  only  heard ;  and  the  result  is  that  the  two  kinds  of 
knowledge  are  hopelessly  mixed  together.  The  late  Henry 
W.  Paine,  while  still  holding  a  foremost  rank  at  the  bar, 
used  to  describe  a  scene  witnessed  by  him  when  Daniel 
Webster  presented  publicly  to  Charles  Sumner,  then  a 
youth,  a  prize  for  an  essay.  Mr.  Paine  on  reading  Sum- 
ner's  Memoir  (vol.  i.  pp.  73,  74)  discovered  that  he  had 
fallen  into  an  anachronism,  as  the  presentation  had  taken 
place  before  he  and  Sumner  met,  for  the  first  time,  as 
fellow-students  at  the  Harvard  Law  School.  Happening 
to  meet  Wendell  Phillips,  another  of  his  old  comrades  at 
the  school,  he  communicated  to  him  his  error,  saying, 
"What  a  wretched  thing,  Wendell,  the  memory  is!  "  The 
explanation  is,  that  Mr.  Paine  had  in  early  life  heard  the 
story,  and,  telling  it  often,  had  come  to  believe  that  he 
himself  was  present 

Recollections  may  have  a  considerable  value  when  they 
corroborate  one  another,  —  as  when  they  are  given  by  dif- 
ferent persons  testifying  without  collusion  or  conference, 
and  generally  agreeing  in  details.  This  test  of  evidence  is 
familiar  to  lawyers. 

Recollections  may  be  of  some  use  in  coloring  a  narrative, 
where  the  substantial  facts  have  been  settled  by  trustworthy 
evidence ;  but  even  to  this  extent  they  are  to  be  taken  with 
extreme  caution.  I  have  had  occasion  to  relate  scenes  — 
as  a  debate  in  Congress  —  which  I  had  myself  witnessed 
and  described  at  the  time  ;  and  long  afterwards  descriptions 
by  others  came  out,  giving  incidents  which  I  could  not  re- 
call, and  which  were  not  verified  by  contemporary  accounts. 
I  have  therefore  been  obliged  to  suggest  that  there  might 
be  exaggeration  in  such  recollections.1  Mr.  Hay,  one  of 
1  Sumner  Memoir,  iii.  607  note,  610  note. 


3/8       RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  HISTORY. 

the  biographers  of  Lincoln,  once  told  me  that  he  and  his 
associate  rejected  anecdotes  and  narratives  not  supported 
by  contemporary  records  or  reports. 

This  paper  relates  to  periods  which  have  been  illustrated 
by  abundant  contemporary  materials,  and  is  altogether 
aside  from  the  questions  which  were  raised  by  Niebuhr's 
treatment  of  early  Roman  history.  It  deals  only  with 
periods  where  twilight  has  passed  into  clear  day.  Nor 
will  any  attempt  be  made  to  weigh  and  compare  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  evidence  competent  to  prove  historical 
facts,  whether  original,  secondary,  hearsay,  or  traditionary. 
Without  doubt,  the  best  kind  of  evidence  is  the  testimony 
of  intelligent  and  trustworthy  eye-witnesses,  promptly  and 
faithfully  transcribed  in  imperishable  records;  but  with 
something  less  than  this  history  must  often  be  content  in 
determining  the  general  features  of  a  transaction,  or  the 
share  in  it  which  belongs  to  particular  individuals. 

The  view  here  given  of  the  value  of  personal  recollec- 
tions invites  attention  to  some  instances  where  they  have 
been  shown  to  be  without  value,  even  after  they  had  found 
credence  with  investigators. 

In  October,  1895,  I  listened  at  Cornell  University  to 
the  opening  lecture  of  a  course,  by  Professor  H.  Morse 
Stephens,  on  the  sources  of  the  history  of  the  French  Re- 
volution, among  them  diaries  of  eye-witnesses,  memoirs, 
and  public  documents  ;  and  he  assigned  small  value  to 
memoirs  written  several  years  after  the  events,  by  persons 
who  had  been  contemporary  with  them.1 

The  "  Boston  Tea  Party"  took  place  December  16,  1773. 
The  date  and  general  features  of  the  transaction  are  well 

1  Since  this  paper  was  read,  Professor  Stephens's  article  entitled  "  Recent 
Memoirs  of  the  French  Directory  "  has  appeared  in  the  American  Historical 
Review  for  April,  1896,  in  which  (pp.  475,  476,  489)  he  comments  on  the 
value  of  memoirs  as  historical  evidence. 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A   SOURCE   OF   HISTORY.      379 

ascertained  ;  but  no  one  of  its  members  is  known  by  satis- 
factory proofs.  In  order  to  identify  them  there  should  be 
some  contemporaneous  record,  diary,  or  letter,  or  at  least 
testimonies  of  responsible  individuals,  made  independently 
of  one  another,  substantially  concurring,  and  given  at  least 
within  fifteen  or  twenty  years  after  the  event.  There  were 
obvious  reasons  for  reticence  until  the  recognition  of  Amer- 
ican Independence  in  1783,  but  they  ended  with  that  date. 
When  the  contest  with  Great  Britain  had  been  successfully 
terminated,  an  avowal  of  connection  with  the  destruction  of 
the  tea  could  entail  no  loss,  and  would  insure  honor,  per- 
haps pensions,  to  the  participants.  Nevertheless,  no  one, 
so  far  as  my  researches  have  gone,  confessed  to  any  con- 
nection with  it  till  about  half  a  century  after  the  affair,  — 
when  he  had  become  so  old  as  to  be  unable  to  distinguish 
between  what  he  had  seen  and  what  he  had  only  heard. 
The  credibility  of  his  narration  would  then  be  no  more 
than  that  of  the  depositions  of  the  Bunker  Hill  veterans 
hereinafter  referred  to. 

There  is  no  contemporaneous  written  evidence  as  to  the 
participants  in  the  "  Tea  Party."  Peter  Edes,  writing 
February  18,  1836,  of  his  father,  Benjamin  Edes,  said: 
"  It  is  a  little  surprising  that  the  names  of  the  Tea  Party 
were  never  made  public.  My  father,  I  believe,  was  the 
only  person  who  had  a  list  of  them,  and  he  always  kept 
it  locked  up  in  his  desk  while  living." l  This  statement, 
made  in  the  way  it  is,  does  not  justify  the  belief  that  such 
a  list  ever  existed. 

The  number  engaged  in  the  "Tea  Party  "has  been  stated 
variously,  ranging  from  seventeen  to  three  hundred ;  and 
there  have  been  discrepancies  in  the  reminiscent  state- 
ments as  to  the  wharf  where  the  ships  lay  and  the  number 
of  the  ships,  though  these  points  are  now  settled. 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  xii.  175 


380       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF   HISTORY. 

John  Adams,  who  may  have  had  some  knowledge  be- 
forehand of  what  was  to  take  place,  wrote  to  Mr.  Niles  as 
late  as  May  10,  1819:  "I  now  tell  you,  in  truth  and  upon 
honor,  that  I  know  not  and  never  knew  the  name  of  any  one 
of  them,"  —  that  is,  of  the  participants  in  the  "Tea  Party." 
He  avoided  knowledge  at  the  time,  so  as  not  to  be  a  com- 
petent witness  against  any  one  in  a  criminal  prosecution. 
Two  years  before  the  date  of  this  letter  a  visitor  "  blurted 
out  the  name  "  of  one  member  to  Mr.  Adams,  but  he  would 
not  commit  it  to  writing.  Curiously  enough,  he  states  in 
the  same  letter  that  he  was  at  Plymouth  at  the  time  of  the 
event,  whereas  his  journal  and  his  letter  to  James  Warren, 
December  17,  1773,  show  him  to  have  been  then  in  Bos- 
ton, —  another  instance  of  the  untrustworthiness  of  old 
men's  memories.1 

Not  long  after  the  date  of  Mr.  Adams's  letter  to  Niles, 
when  an  interval  of  nearly  fifty  years  had  passed,  and  the 
actors  may  be  presumed  to  have  reached  an  age  between 
seventy-five  and  ninety,  reporters  and  interviewers  began 
to  seek  several  garrulous  persons  who  pretended  to  know 
about  the  "  Tea  Party."  Family  traditions  came  out  of  a 
father  or  son  having  tea  found  in  his  boots  the  morning 
after  the  affair.  Niles's  "  Principles  and  Acts  of  the 
Revolution"  (pp.  485,  486)  reprints  from  the  "Boston 
Daily  Advertiser  "  (date  not  given)  2  a  report  of  conver- 
sations with  the  survivors  of  the  period,  who  disagreed  as 
to  the  number  of  the  ships  and  the  wharf  where  they  lay. 
This  interviewer  says:  "The  contrivers  of  this  measure 
and  those  who  carried  it  into  effect  will  never  be  known. 
.  .  .  None  of  those  persons  who  were  confidently  said 

1  John  Adams's  Works,  ii.  323,  334,  ;  ix.  333. 

2  The  original  communication  has,  after  a  search,  been  discovered  in  the 
issue  of  that  journal  for  November  10,  1821.    The  first  of  the  writers  series 
was  published  October  30,  1821. 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY.      381 

to  have  been  of  the  party  (except  some  who  were  then 
minors  or  very  young  men)  have  ever  admitted  that  they 
were  so.  The  person  who  appeared  to  know  more  than 
any  one  I  ever  spoke  with,  refused  to  mention  names. 
There  are  very  few  alive  now  who  helped  to  empty  the 
chests  of  tea,  and  these  few  will  probably  be  as  prudent  as 
those  who  have  gone  before  them."  This  writer  gives  no 
names  of  persons  taking  part  in  the  affair. 

One  of  the  interviewed  persons  ascribes  to  John  Rowe 
the  words  spoken  at  the  meeting  at  the  Old  South  Church, 

"Who  knows  how  tea  will   mingle  with  salt  water?" 

language  used  to  instigate  the  populace  to  the  act.  These 
words  attributed  to  Rowe  have  been  cited  on  this  authority 
alone  by  reputable  authors.  They  are  on  their  face  in- 
credible, for  Rowe  was  an  owner  of  one  of  the  tea  cargoes, 
and  had  enough  of  human  nature  in  him  not  to  exhort 
others  to  destroy  his  own  property.  Moreover,  just  a  year 
ago  appeared  his  Diary,  which  makes  it  clear  that  he 
altogether  disapproved  the  transaction,  and  could  never 
have  spoken  the  words  which  have  again  and  again  been 
put  in  his  mouth.1  The  result  is  that  the  anonymous 
writer  in  the  "  Advertiser,"  who  reports  the  loose  talk  of 
other  anonymous  people,  is  not  deserving  of  credit. 

In  1835,  sixty-two  years  after  the  event,  "The  Traits  of 
the  Tea  Party,  being  a  Memoir  of  George  R.  T.  Hewes," 
was  published.  The  author  withheld  his  name,  but  later 
he  was  ascertained  to  be  Benjamin  B.  Thatcher.  Hewes 
was  ninety-three,  or  nearly  that  age,  when  his  account  was 
taken  down;  and  he  had  believed  himself  to  be  in  his  one 
hundredth  year.  His  testimony  is  impeached  by  his 
"  positively  affirming,  as  of  his  own  observation,  that 
Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock  were  both  actively 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  2d  series,  x.  18, 19, 
81,  82,  where  Mr.  Pierce's  paper  on  Rowe's  Diary  is  printed. 


382       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 

engaged  in  the  process  of  destruction  "  (pages  192,  193)  ; 
and  he  said  further  that  he  recognized  Hancock,  not  only 
by  his  "  ruffles,"  but  by  his  "  figure  and  gait,"  "  features  " 
and  "  voice,"  and  that  he  "  exchanged  with  him  an  Indian 
grunt."  This  was  too  much  for  even  the  credulous 
Thatcher,  who  remarks,  "  This  is  a  curious  reminiscence, 
but  we  believe  it  a  mistake."  Whatever  Adams,  or  even 
Hancock,  may  have  done  in  advising  the  destruction  of 
the  tea,  no  sane  person  believes  that  they  took  a  personal 
part  in  the  scene  itself;  and  there  was  every  reason  why 
such  well-known  leaders  of  the  Patriot  cause  should  have 
kept  away.  Now,  Hewes  states  Hancock's  presence  just 
as  positively  as  he  states  his  own ;  and  his  narrative  can 
be  relied  on  no  more  as  to  himself  than  as  to  others,  as  old 
men  so  often  remember  to  have  seen  what  they  have  only 
heard.  Thatcher  appends  to  his  memoir  of  Hewes  a  list 
of  the  "Tea  Party,"  fifty-eight  in  all,  —  the  first  list  ever 
printed ;  and,  indeed,  no  name  of  any  one  connected  with 
it  had  been  before  given  to  the  public.  He  introduces  the 
list  with  this  explanation :  "  We  subjoin  here  also  a  list 
which  has  been  furnished  by  an  aged  Bostonian,  well 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  our  subject,  of  the  persons 
generally  supposed  within  his  knowledge,  on  traditionary 
or  other  evidence,  to  have  been  more  or  less  actively  en- 
gaged in  or  present  at  the  destruction  of  the  Tea."  This 
is  in  many  points  a  curious  statement.  "  Persons  engaged 
in  "  are  mixed  with  those  who  were  merely  "present  at," 
whether  approving  or  disapproving.  The  name  of  "  the 
aged  Bostonian  "  who  knew  so  much  is  kept  back  without 
any  apparent  reason.  It  is  a  list  of  those  "  generally  sup- 
posed "  to  have  been  participants  or  spectators,  not  of 
those  known  to  have  been  of  one  or  the  other  class.  It  is 
based  on  "  traditionary  and  other  evidence,"  —  the  word 
"  other  "  presumably  indicating  a  weaker  kind  of  evidence 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY.      383 

than  even  tradition,  which  is  generally  thought  to  be  the 
weakest  of  all.  And  yet  this  list  has  been  adopted  by 
Lossing,  who  makes  the  number  fifty-nine,  and  by  Drake, 
who  carries  it  to  one  hundred  and  thirteen;  and  upon 
this  evidence  alone  descendants  of  persons  so  enumerated 
have  chosen  as  a  coat-of-arms  a  ship  being  emptied  by 
Mohawks,  or  a  teapot  fuming  at  the  mouth. 

Another  "  Tea  Party  "  claimant  is  David  Kinnison,  the 
supposed  last  survivor,  who  died  in  1852  at  the  age  of  one 
hundred  and  fifteen.  His  account  seems  to  have  been 
given  in  1848,  seventy- five  years  after  the  event,  when  he 
was  one  hundred  and  eleven  years  and  nine  months  old.1 
Even  F.  S.  Drake,  whose  list,  given  in  his  "  Tea  Leaves," 
is  very  receptive  and  inclusive  (page  Ixxxii),  admits  that, 
"  owing  to  the  great  age  of  Kinnison  when  this  relation  was 
made  to  Mr.  Lossing,  it  is  possibly  in  some  particulars 
erroneous,  and  is  given  only  as  a  piece  of  original  evidence, 
and  simply  for  what  it  is  worth."  This  form  of  expression, 
"  for  what  it  is  worth,"  means  in  plainer  English  that  it  is 
not  worth  anything.  It  does  not  add  to  the  value  of  Kin- 
nison's  account  that  in  middle  life  he  met  with  a  severe 
injury,  —  the  fracture  of  his  skull  and  of  his  collar-bone 
and  two  of  his  ribs. 

Drake  (page  Ixxi)  prints  the  account  of  Joshua  Wyeth, 
who  in  1827,  fifty-four  years  after  the  event,  made  his  nar- 
ration at  Cincinnati.  He  was  fifteen  years  of  age  in  1773, 
and  claimed  to  have  been  one  of  twenty-eight  or  thirty 
engaged.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  real  projectors  of  the 
affair,  who  worked  secretly  and  kept  their  secret  well, 
would  have  invited  a  youth  of  fifteen  to  join  with  them. 

At  this  Society's  commemoration  of  the  one  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  "  Tea  Party"  in  December,  1873,  Rich- 
ard Frothingham,  a  most  careful  and  honest  investigator, 
1  Lossing's  Pictorial  Field  Book  of  the  Revolution,  i.  499,  500. 


384       RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  HISTORY. 

read  a  paper  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  in  which  he 
said :  "  Several  of  the  party  have  been  identified,  but  the 
claims  presented  for  others  are  doubtful ;  "  but  he  assigned 
no  names  to  either  class.  He  said  of  Thatcher's  list  that 
it  was  "  not  trustworthy  as  to  those  who  did  the  work." 

At  the  same  meeting  of  the  Society  Thomas  C.  Amory 
added  two  names  to  the  list, —  those  of  Amos  Lincoln  and 
Colonel  James  Swan ;  but  he  gave  no  proofs,  except  by 
saying  that  when  a  Harvard  student  he  visited  Colonel 
Swan  in  London,  who  "  recounted  the  particulars  of  the 
destruction  of  the  tea,  in  which  he  assisted."  As  Mr. 
Amory  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in  1830,  Colonel 
Swan  made  the  communication  fifty-seven  years  after  the 
"  Tea  Party ;  "  and  Mr.  Amory  first  gave  it  to  the  public 
forty-three  years  after  it  had  been  made  to  him,  —  thus 
being  carried  in  two  memories  for  one  hundred  years. 
These  intervals  are  too  long  to  admit  the  two  narrations 
as  bases  of  history. 

The  conclusion  is  that  no  one  person  has  been  iden- 
tified with  any  certainty  as  a  member  of  the  historic 
"  Tea  Party,"  —  at  least  upon  any  evidence  on  which  a 
plaintiff  or  a  prosecutor  could  expect  a  verdict,  or  upon 
the  lesser  evidence,  that  of  reasonable  probability,  with 
which  historical  writers  must  sometimes  be  content. 

One  inquiry  comes  naturally  in  this  connection,  why  it 
was  that  after  the  peace  of  1783  the  members  of  the  "Tea 
Party"  kept  up  their  reticence  concerning  their  own  share 
in  it,  —  a  reticence  which  appears  in  John  Adams's  letter 
and  in  the  account  reprinted  in  Niles's  book.  Those  who 
had  borne  a  part  in  the  civil  and  military  history  of  the 
Revolution  took  pride  in  avowing  what  they  had  done  for 
their  country  in  those  spheres.  The  men  of  the  "Tea 
Party "  were  then  safe  from  civil  and  criminal  proceed- 
ings, and  also  from  social  censure,  as  most  of  the  owners, 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY.       385 

the  Hutchinsons  and  Clarkes,  were  emigres.  Was  their 
studied  silence  due  to  the  instinctive  shrinking  of  civilized 
people  to  confess  a  share  in  any  deed  of  violence,  what- 
ever defences  it  may  have,  which  lacks  the  sanction  of 
law,  —  either  the  civil  law  or  the  law  of  war  ? 

When  the  corner-stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument 
was  laid  in  1825,  fifty  years  after  the  battle,  there  were 
present  one  hundred  and  ninety  survivors  of  the  army  of 
the  Revolution,  forty  of  whom  had  been,  or  claimed  to 
have  been,  engaged  in  the  conflict  of  June  17,  1775.  One 
of  the  directors  of  the  Monument  Association,  William 
Sullivan,  assisted  by  other  directors  and  by  Judge  Thatcher, 
wishing  to  preserve  the  details  of  the  battle  and  to  clear  up 
disputed  points,  caused  the  depositions  of  the  survivors  to 
be  taken.  These,  or  a  transcript  of  them  in  three  volumes, 
were  sent  to  this  Society  in  1842  by  William  Sullivan's 
brother  Richard ;  and  a  committee  consisting  of  Ticknor, 
Bancroft,  and  Ellis  was  appointed  to  report  on  the  his- 
torical character  and  value  of  the  manuscripts.  This  com- 
mittee came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  should  be  sealed 
up  and  deposited  in  the  Cabinet  as  curiosities.  It  is  not 
clear  what  became  of  them.  They  were  supposed  to  have 
been  returned  to  the  Sullivan  family  at  their  request,  and 
to  have  been  burned  by  them ;  but  some  of  the  originals 
have  been  since  offered  for  sale  at  an  auction-room  in  New 
York  City.1 

A  note  by  Dr.  Ellis  to  the  Proceedings  of  the  Society 
for  April,  1842  (page  231),  says:  — 

"  I  took  the  books  to  my  house  in  Charlestown,  and  deliberately 

examined  them.     Their  contents  were  most  extraordinary,  —  many 

of  the  testimonies  extravagant,  boastful,  inconsistent,  and  utterly 

i  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  ii.  224,  225,  230- 

232,  234,  235  ;  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  vi.  189. 

25 


386       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A   SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 

untrue ;  mixtures  of  old  men's  broken  memories  and  fond  imagin- 
ings with  the  love  of  the  marvellous.  Some  of  those  who  gave  in 
affidavits  about  the  battle  could  not  have  been  in  it,  nor  even  in  its 
neighborhood.  They  had  got  so  used  to  telling  the  story  for  the 
wonderment  of  village  listeners  as  grandfathers'  tales,  and  as  petted 
representatives  of 'the  spirit  of  '76,'  that  they  did  not  distinguish 
between  what  they  had  seen  and  done  and  what  they  had  read, 
heard,  or  dreamed.  The  decision  of  the  committee  was  that  much 
of  the  contents  of  the  volumes  was  wholly  worthless  for  history,  and 
some  of  it  discreditable,  as  misleading  and  false." 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  a  very  competent  historical 
critic  as  to  old  soldiers'  accounts  of  battles  in  which  they 
served,  or  thought  they  had  served,  long  ago.  It  fits  well 
what  King  Henry  foretold  of  the  survivor  of  Agincourt,  — 

"  Old  men  forget ;  yet  all  shall  be  forgot, 
But  he'll  remember  with  advantages 
What  feats  he  did  that  day." 

In  the  Proceedings  of  this  Society  for  February,  1881 
(pp.  340-344),  there  is  an  account  of  the  Garrison  mob  of 
October  21,  1835,  contributed  forty-five  years  after  the 
event  by  the  late  Ellis  Ames,  evidently  without  the  assist- 
ance of  any  contemporaneous  notes.  He  describes  what 
he  saw  of  the  mob,  and  then  mentions  a  call  at  the  law 
office  of  A.  H.  Fiske,  on  Court  Street,  just  after  the  affair, 
and  then  a  call  on  Charles  Sumner  at  No.  4  Court  Street, 
directly  opposite,  to  whom  he  related  what  he  had  just 
seen.  Then,  apparently  intending  to  give  the  impression 
that  Mr.  Sumner  did  not  disapprove,  or  at  any  rate  with 
any  earnestness,  what  had  occurred,  he  adds,  — 

"  He  did  not  express  such  anxiety  about  the  affair  as  Mr.  Fiske 
did.  If  Mr.  Sumner  had  gone  to  the  door  of  his  office,  and  walked 
by  the  railing  on  the  left  side  about  twenty-five  feet,  he  would  have 
come  to  a  window  which  opened  on  the  south  side  of  Court  Street, 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A   SOURCE   OF  HISTORY.       387 

where  by  looking  out  in  an  easterly  direction  he  could  have  seen 
all  the  doings  of  the  mob  which  took  place  on  State  Street." 

How  Mr.  Sumner,  whose  office  was  in  the  rear,  lighted 
only  by  an  inside  court,  is  to  be  held  responsible  for  not 
looking  at  a  scene  on  the  street  of  which  he  knew  nothing 
till  it  was  all  passed,  it  is  impossible  to  see.  Besides,  the 
account  which  Mr.  Ames  gives  and  the  suggestion  he  makes 
are  altogether  improbable.  His  statement  of  the  interior 
arrangements  of  No.  4  Court  Street,  where  he  was  only  an 
occasional  visitor,  does  not  agree  with  the  recollection  of 
those  who  had  offices  there  for  a  long  time, —  among  them 
our  associates  Mr.  George  S.  Hale  and  Mr.  George  O. 
Shattuck,  —  and  who  say  that  no  window  looked  out  from 
the  hall  on  Court  Street,  but  that  the  windows  looking  out 
on  that  street  were  to  be  reached  only  by  entering  the  front 
offices.  Besides,  Mr.  Sumner,  who  had  inherited  his  father's 
antislavery  sentiments,  is  on  record  as  expressing  like  sen- 
timents even  earlier  than  the  mob ;  and  about  the  time  it 
took  place  he  became  a  subscriber  for  the  "  Liberator."  1 

I  knew  Mr.  Ames  from  my  youth,  having  been  born  and 
having  lived  till  manhood  within  four  miles  of  his  home.  In 
the  winter  of  1852-53  I  passed  three  months  in  his  law  office 
at  Canton,  often  dining  with  him,  and  driving  with  him  to 
hunt  up  evidence  for  trials,  and  to  explore  disputed  boun- 
daries in  woods  and  swamps ;  and  at  this  time  he  presented 
me  for  admission  to  the  bar.  During  this  intimacy  we  talked 
of  Mr.  Sumner  very  often,  but  he  never  mentioned  the  inci- 
dent about  the  mob.  Late  in  his  life  he  first  mentioned  it 
to  me  on  the  street  in  Boston ;  but  I  paid  little  attention  to 
what  he  said,  treating  it  as  a  dream  of  age,  as  his  faculties 
were  then  waning,  and  his  mood  was  unlike  that  of  earlier 
days.  He  mentioned  at  the  same  interview  another  anti- 

i  Sumner  Memoir,  i.  24-27,  134,  157.  i73>  l85>  I9I :  "*•  69- 


388       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A   SOURCE   OF   HISTORY. 

slavery  leader  whom  he  saw  active  as  one  of  the  mob,  but 
whose  name  he  did  not  include  in  the  account.  I  first  as- 
certained that  his  narrative  had  passed  into  print  when 
I  saw  it  noted  in  the  Life  of  W.  L.  Garrison,1  where  the 
biographe'rs,  though  calling  it  "  a  singularly  mixed  ac- 
count," interpreted  it,  so  far  as  Mr.  Sumner  was  concerned, 
in  the  same  manner  I  had  interpreted  it.  To  my  note  of 
protest  Mr.  W.  P.  Garrison  replied,  — 

"  I  had  no  personal  knowledge  of  Mr.  Ames,  or  I  might  have 
hesitated  to  cite  him  as  I  did ;  but  I  detected  his  untrustworthiness 
in  relating  what  took  place  about  the  Old  State  House ;  for  here  I 
had  a  cloud  of  witnesses  to  check  him  at  every  point.  I  have  re- 
ferred in  a  note  to  his  singularly  confused  account.  At  a  distance 
from  Boston  I  had  to  regard  him  with  a  certain  respect,  because 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  admitted  him  to  its  '  Proceed- 
ings.' I  think  your  quarrel  is  really  with  that  Society." 

Of  all  reminiscences  those  concerning  public  men  at 
Washington  are  the  mos*t  untrustworthy.  The  life  of  a 
capital  city  teems  with  gossip;  it  abounds  in  rivalries,  jeal- 
ousies, calumnies.  General  Sherman,  in  a  letter  to  Presi- 
dent Johnson,  calls  Washington  "  the  focus  of  intrigue, 
gossip,  and  slander."  Stories  of  public  characters  have 
somewhat  the  interest  of  fiction,  and  the  mass  of  readers 
care  little  whether  they  are  true  or  not.  Managers  of 
magazines  are  keen  in  the  search  for  them ;  and  the  result 
is  a  medley  of  tales,  with  little  of  truth  in  them,  and  that 
little  of  truth  so  compounded  with  falsehood  as  to  be  worse 
than  falsehood  entire.  They  obtain  a  credence  with  even 
intelligent  people,  who  fancy  that  what  is  in  type  must  be 
true.  In  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  years  they  are  thought  worthy 
of  recognition  as  a  source  of  history.  But  if  any  one  canon 
should  be  rigidly  observed  by  American  historians,  it  is 

1  Vol.  ii.  p.  25  note. 


RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE   OF   HISTORY.       389 

that  Washington  gossip  is  not  history.  I  have  had  occa- 
sion elsewhere  to  deal  with  some  of  these  irresponsible 
raconteurs,  —  as  Miss  Olive  Seward,  Adam  Badeau,  and 
Noah  Brooks.1  Not  seldom,  such  writers  can  be  impeached 
by  a  record  ;  and  they  are  apt  to  expose  themselves  by 
falling  into  anachronisms.  Now  and  then  a  valuable  con- 
tribution, like  that  of  General  J.  D.  Cox  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  August,  1895,  appears;  but  generally  remi- 
niscences of  Washington  life  and  affairs  should  be  dis- 
missed without  consideration  by  historians. 

Mr.  Lincoln  has  been  the  subject  of  a  vast  amount  of 
reminiscences,  and  will  continue  to  be  such  for  the  next 
twenty  years  or  more.  Whether  the  true  Lincoln  can  ever 
be  discovered  among  the  rubbish  is  doubtful.  At  a  dinner 
in  Washington  the  host,  whose  recollections  have  been 
published,  was  relating  at  length  what  Lincoln  had  said  to 
him,  and  even  more  at  length  what  he  had  said  to  Lincoln, 
when  a  guest,  a  witty  lawyer  of  New  York  City,  becoming 
weary  with  the  monotonous  tale,  interrupted  it  with  the 
question,  "Will  you  not  now  tell  us  of  your  talks  with 
Washington  and  Columbus  ?  " 

Daniel  Webster  has  been  the  victim  of  reminiscences 
by  one  who  understood  him  not  half  so  well  as  Friday 
understood  Robinson  Crusoe.  Mr.  Lodge  says  of  Peter 
Harvey's  book  :  "  A  more  untrustworthy  book  it  would 
be  impossible  to  imagine.  There  is  not  a  statement  in  it 
which  can  be  safely  accepted,  unless  supported  by  other 
evidence.  It  puts  its  subject  throughout  in  the  most  un- 
pleasant light,  and  nothing  has  ever  been  written  about 
Webster  so  well  calculated  to  injure  and  belittle  him  as 
these  feeble  and  distorted  recollections  of  his  loving  and 


Memoir,   iv.   381-383,   329  note,  613-624;   Century  Magazine, 
March,  1895,  pp.  792,  793. 


390       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 

devoted  Boswell.  It  is  the  reflection  of  a  great  man  upon 
the  mirror  of  a  very  small  mind  and  weak  memory."  1 
And  yet,  as  I  happen  to  know,  the  book  is  not  nearly  so 
bad  as  it  would  have  been  without  the  revision  by  a  most 
accomplished  proof-reader2  of  the  University  Press  at 
Cambridge. 

General  Grant's  "  Personal  Memoirs  "  reveal  a  remark- 
able inaccuracy  of  statement  in  an  affair  where  Secretary 
Stanton,  with  whom  his  relations  were  not  pleasant,  was 
concerned.  President  Lincoln  visited  Richmond  imme- 
diately after  its  evacuation ;  and  while  there  he  issued  an 
order  to  General  Weitzel  to  give  permission  to  the  Legis- 
lature of  Virginia  (or  rather,  as  the  order  read,  "  to  the 
gentlemen  who  have  acted  as  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
in  support  of  the  rebellion")  to  assemble  at  Richmond. 
He  then  returned  to  Washington  by  the  Potomac,  reaching 
there  the  last  Sunday  evening  of  his  life.  From  Washing- 
ton, April  12,  1865,  two  days  before  his  death,  he  himself 
revoked  the  summons  to  the  above  body,  giving  his  rea- 
sons. It  was  his  own  act,  and  his  last  important  official 
act.  The  circumstances  were  well  known  at  the  time,  and 
shortly  after  became  the'  subject  of  considerable  discus- 
sion.3 Nevertheless,  twenty  years  afterwards  General 
Grant,  in  illustrating  what  he  calls  Stanton's  "  character- 
istic "  as  "  a  man  who  never  questioned  his  own  authority, 
and  who  always  did  in  war-time  what  he  wanted  to  do," 
wrote  that  Stanton  countermanded  the  above-named  order, 
"  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  President  was  nearer 
the  spot  than  he  was,"  —  meaning  that  Stanton  did  at 
Washington,  while  Lincoln  was  in  or  near  Richmond,  what 

1  Lodge's  Webster,  i.  95  note. 

2  Mr.  A.  W.  Stevens. 

8  Nicolay  and  Hay's  Lincoln,  x.  222-228. 


RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 


391 


in  fact  Lincoln  himself  did  at  Washington.1  The  pub- 
lishers and  editors  of  the  recent  edition  of  the  "  Personal 
Memoirs  "  have  not  seen  fit  to  note  this  manifest  error. 
This  criticism  is  limited  to  General  Grant's  correctness  as 
a  narrator  of  civil  affairs ;  but  his  accuracy  as  a  narrator 
of  military  affairs  has  also  been  much  questioned.2 

American  magazines  have  of  late  years  teemed  with 
descriptions  of  the  campaigns  and  battles  of  the  Civil  War, 
contributed  by  officers  who  had  taken  part  in  them.  I 
cannot  speak  in  detail  of  this  literature ;  but  it  is  worthy 
of  note  that  Colonel  Robert  N.  Scott,  who  had  charge  of 
the  published  "  Compilation  of  the  Official  Records  of  the 
Union  and  Confederate  Armies,"  took  a  certain  satisfac- 
tion in  calling  the  attention  of  these  magazine  contributors 
to  the  disagreements  between  their  official  reports  and 
what  they  now  wrote  after  an  interval  of  years.  They  had 
not  even  taken  the  pains  to  verify  what  they  communi- 
cated for  popular  reading  by  recurring  to  what  they  had 
written  at  the  time  on  official  responsibility. 

It  happened  to  me  to  read  Wilberforce's  Life  when  I 
was  in  college ;  and  Butler's  Analogy  being  then  one  of 
my  textbooks,  I  noted  what  Pitt  had  said  to  Wilberforce,  — 
that "  the  work  raised  in  his  mind  more  doubts  than  it  had 
answered."  3  I  remember  to  have  used  this  extract  in  my 
examination,  and  I  have  kept  it  in  mind  ever  since.  The 

1  Personal  Memoirs,  ist  ed.  ii.  505,  506 ;  2d  ed.  ii.  355,  356. 

2  "  From  Chattanooga  to  Petersburg,"  by  W.  F.  Smith ;  "  Grant  versus 
the  Record,"  by  Carswell  McClellan ;  General  J.  D.  Cox's  review  of  the 
"  Personal  Memoirs  "  in  the  New  York  "  Nation,"  February  25  and  July  I, 
1886;  "The  Mistakes  of  Grant,"  by  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  North  American 
Review,  December,  1885,  pp.  580-599;  "Misunderstandings:  Halleck  and 
Grant,"  by  J.  B.  Fry,  Magazine  of  American  History,  xvi.  561. 

3  Life  of  Wilberforce,  i.  95. 


392       RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 

biographers  include  this  remark  of  Pitt  among  conversa- 
tional memoranda  which  they  had  picked  up  from  one 
source  or  another,  and  represent  it  to  have  been  made  in 
1785,  while  Wilberforce's  Life  was  published  in  1838. 
But  now,  one  hundred  and  eleven  years  after  the  remark 
is  said  to  have  been  made,  and  fifty-eight  years  after  it 
was  put  in  print,  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  a  recent  paper  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  November,  1895  (pages  721,  722), 
disputes  the  authenticity  of  Pitt's  reported  remark,  as 
being  from  a  source  "  neither  contemporary  nor  first 
hand,"  and  "  in  conflict  with  another  account  of  a  directly 
opposite  tenor,"  according  to  which  Pitt  commended  the 
book.  If  Mr.  Gladstone  is  right  in  his  contention,  what 
credit  is  to  be  given  to  the  conversations  with  which 
biographies  abound? 

Conversations  are  with  difficulty  recorded  by  a  listener, 
and  reports  of  them  must  be  taken  with  much  allowance. 
In  ordinary  talk  there  are  many  omissions  to  be  filled  by 
the  context, — by  what  has  been  said  before,  either  on  the 
same  or  an  earlier  occasion.  Then,  too,  expression  and 
gesture  are  left  to  correct  an  imperfect  sentence  or  com- 
plete an  unfinished  thought.  Much  depends  also  not 
only  on  the  narrator's  skill,  but  also  on  his  abstinence 
from  the  natural  disposition  to  color  his  record  by  his  own 
feelings  and  ideas.  The  late  Henry  Wilson,  just  after 
reading  a  well-known  diary  containing  much  reported  to 
have  been  said  by  public  men,  remarked  to  me  that  he 
would  not  talk  with  any  one  whom  he  knew  to  be  keeping 
a  diary.  Perhaps  he  had  premonitions  of  similar  records 
concerning  himself;  for  his  own  conversations  as  to  public 
men  and  events  were  singularly  free  and  unguarded.  The 
late  Nassau  W.  Senior  often  visited  Paris,  where  he  mingled 
freely  with  scholars  and  public  men ;  and  his  notes  of  the 
"  Conversations  "  he  listened  to  have  been  published.  I 


RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY.       393 

once  mentioned  these  to  Michel  Chevalier;  and  he  said 
that  there  was  a  good  deal  of  Mr.  Senior  in  them,  —  mean- 
ing that  Mr.  Senior  in  undertaking  to  report  others  had 
fallen  into  the  habit  of  recording  his  own  thoughts. 

Somewhat  kindred  to  the  topic  in  hand  is  the  credibility 
of  diaries.  These  must  often  be  taken  at  a  discount. 
Assuming  the  veracity  of  the  writer,  he  is  apt  not  to  con- 
fine himself  to  what  he  really  knows.  For  instance,  J.  Q. 
Adams  in  his  diary  1  attributes  to  Webster  the  authorship 
of  Whig  resolutions  in  September,  1846;  but  intrinsic  as 
well  as  outside  evidence  points  to  another  author, — J. 
Thomas  Stevenson,  a  merchant  of  the  time,  who  reported 
them  to  the  convention.  They  lack  terseness  and  vigor, 
qualities  which  predominate  in  Webster's  style.2 

But  whatever  may  be  the  value  of  diaries,  greater  or  less 
according  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of  the 
diarist  and  his  opportunities  of  observation,  no  credit 
should  be  given  to  anonymous  diaries.  Those  which 
cannot  be  tested  by  the  character  of  the  diarist  are  worth- 
less, and  should  never  be  cited  except  to  be  repudiated. 
No  honest  narrator  will  withhold  his  name  from  what  he 
declares  to  the  world  he  has  seen  or  heard.  A  single 
instance  must  suffice. 

The  North  American  Review  in  i8793  printed  what 
purported  to  be  the  "  Diary  of  a  Public  Man,"  describing, 
with  personal  details  of  various  public  men,  what  was 
going  on  in  New  York  City  and  Washington  in  the  winter 
of  1860-1861,  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Rebellion. 
The  editor,  A.  T.  Rice,  refused  to  give  the  name  of  the 
writer  to  George  T.  Curtis,  the  biographer  of  President 

1  Diary  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  xii.  274. 

2  Memoir  of  Charles  Sumner,  iii.  124  note;  125  note. 
8  North  American  Review,  cxxix.  125,  375,  484. 


394       RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE   OF  HISTORY. 

Buchanan.1  Other  persons  have  sought  to  learn  the  au- 
thorship of  this  Diary,  but  without  success ;  and  perhaps, 
Mr.  Rice  having  died,  it  is  unknown  to  any  living  person. 
Several  names  have  been  suggested,  but  probably  without 
reason.  The  latest  theory  is  that  the  Diary  is  a  pure 
invention,  —  a  fictitious  narrative  by  an  adventurer  re- 
cently deceased,  who  had  much  to  do  with  newspapers 
and  magazines,  who  had  a  career  both  in  this  country  and 
in  England,  and  who  late  in  his  life  figured  in  a  scandalous 
trial  in  London.  He  was  able,  by  a  general  knowledge  of 
social  occasions  and  of  the  presence  of  public  men  in  the 
two  cities,  to  give  an  air  of  probability  to  his  narrative ; 
but  a  close  scrutiny  reveals  his  untrustworthiness. 

This  diarist  makes  himself  the  most  remarkable  per- 
sonage of  modern  times.  His  counsels  and  mediation 
were  eagerly  sought  by  men  of  adverse  opinions  and 
positions,  and  he  was  admitted  by  them  to  most  confi- 
dential interviews.  Among  these  were  Douglas,  Seward, 
Sumner,  the  British  Minister,  and  the  Confederate  chiefs 
Orr  and  Forsyth.  He  was  solicited  to  assist  in  making 
the  Cabinet;  all  the  departments  were  open  to  him;  and 
Lincoln,  as  soon  as  he  was  in  office,  though  weighted  with 
unexampled  burdens,  put  aside  all  other  duties  to  receive 
him  and  listen  to  his  wisdom.  Who  could  be  this  mar- 
vellous man,  so  miscellaneous  in  his  affiliations,  whose 
thoughts  statesmen  yearned  to  hear  in  those  dread  hours? 
It  is  easier  to  suppose  that  he  did  not  exist  than  to  point 
him  out  among  the  characters  of  that  eventful  period. 

The  Diary  bears  in  some  entries  intrinsic  evidence  of 
not  being  genuine.  In  the  first  place  it  attributes  to  Mr. 
Sumner  activity  in  Cabinet-making,  —  a  function  from 
which  by  taste  and  habit  he  kept  aloof.  In  the  next  place 
it  states  that  the  diarist  and  another  person  held  by  ap- 

1  President  Buchanan's  Life,  ii.  891  note;  394,  395. 


RECOLLECTIONS   AS  A  SOURCE   OF   HISTORY. 


395 


pointment  a  conference  with  President  Lincoln  March  7, 
his  third  day  in  office,  and  in  the  afternoon  of  that  day. 
Now,  it  appears,  by  the  public  journals  of  March  8,  that  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  /th  the  President  gave  a  formal  recep- 
tion, his  first  one,  to  the  diplomatic  corps,  —  a  protracted 
ceremonial.  After  its  conclusion  there  would  not  have 
been  time  before  dinner,  which  then  came  at  an  early  hour 
in  Washington,  —  that  is,  about  six,  —  for  such  a  confer- 
ence as  the  diarist  pretends  to  ascribe.  Again,  he  sub- 
stitutes blanks  for  names,  —  and  this,  eighteen  years  after 
the  date,  when  the  prominent  actors,  long  since  dead, 
could  not  be  compromised  by  publicity.  The  suppres- 
sion of  names  is  an  obvious  mode  of  securing  a  fictitious 
narrative  against  detection. 

In  1886,  seven  years  after  it  appeared,  I  undertook  to 
test  the  Diary  as  well  as  I  could.  I  found  only  one  person 
living  with  whom  its  writer  described  an  interview,  —  in- 
deed, I  think  the  only  person  named  in  that  way  who  was 
living  when  the  Diary  appeared ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely, 
as  that  one  had  retired  from  active  life,  that  the  diarist 
thought  him  dead  also.  This  was  Hiram  Barney,1  who  a 
few  weeks  after  the  reported  interview  with  him  became 
Collector  of  the  Port  of  New  York.  I  had  become  inti- 
mate with  Mr.  Barney  as  early  as  1856,  having  formed  an 
acquaintance  with  him  still  earlier.  He  lived  till  May  18 
of  last  year.  The  Diary  reports  a  conversation  with  him 
February  20,  1861,  just  after  he  had  come  from  a  break- 
fast at  Moses  H.  Grinnell's,  given  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  was 
then  on  his  way  to  Washington.  The  breakfast  did  indeed 
take  place,  and  is  mentioned  the  next  day  in  the  "  New 
York  Tribune,"  with  the  names  of  several  of  the  guests ; 
but  Mr.  Barney  is  not  named  in  the  list,  and  in  fact  did 
not  attend,  contrary  to  the  statement  of  the  Diary.  In 

1  Diary  of  a  Public  Man,  pp.  137,  138. 


396       RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE   OF   HISTORY. 

answer  to  my  inquiry  as  to  his  presence  and  the  conver- 
sation alleged  to  have  taken  place  immediately  after,  he 
replied  in  a  letter  dated  October  5,  1886, — 

"  I  recollect  the  article  in  the  N.  A.  Review  to  which  you  refer, 
— '  Diary  of  a  Public  Man ;  "  and  as  I  could  not  recollect  his  inter- 
view with  me  to  which  he  refers,  was  anxious  at  the  time  to  know 
who  he  was.  I  applied  to  Appleton  &  Co.,  the  publishers ;  but 
they  could  not  or  would  not  inform  me.  I  do  not  think  that  his 
statement,  so  far  as  it  regards  my  calling  upon  him  at  his  hotel,  or 
the  breakfast  at  Grinnell's,  or  Mr.  Lincoln,  had  a  particle  of  truth 
in  it.  There  was  no  such  breakfast,  and  no  such  interview,  and 
no  such  statements,  and  probably  the  author  was  a  romancer.  If 
you  should  ever  find  out  who  the  author  was,  I  wish  you  would 
tell  me." 

I  replied  promptly  to  Mr.  Barney  that  there  was  a  break- 
fast at  Grinnell's,  repeating  the  names  of  guests  mentioned 
in  the  "  Tribune ;  "  and  he  wrote,  October  7,  — 

"  I  have  yours  of  the  6th.  I  am  sure  that  I  did  not  attend  the 
breakfast  at  Grinnell's,  Feb.  20,  '61.  It  was  not  such  a  gathering 
as  at  that  time  I  would  probably  be  invited  to  or  would  care  to  at- 
tend. There  are  some  of  my  special  friends  in  the  list,  such  as 
Charles  H.  Marshall,  H.  Fish,  and  T.  Tileston ;  there  are  others, 
such  as  John  J.  Astor,  John  A.  Stevens,  Aspinwall,  and  Minturn, 
with  whom  I  was  on  friendly  terms  enough,  but  not  very  intimate ; 
then  there  were  others  with  whom  I  was  never  on  any  terms  of  cor- 
diality. It  was,  with  few  exceptions,  a  Seward  crowd ;  and  such 
people  were  wholly  unsympathetic  with  me.  I  may  have  heard  of 
the  breakfast  at  the  time,  and  it  now  seems  probable  that  it  really 
occurred  ;  but  it  does  not  seem  possible  that  I  called  on  the  writer 
in  the  N.  A.  Review,  whoever  he  was,  and  had  with  him  any  con- 
versation, certainly  not  the  conversation  which  he  reports.  I  have 
tried  to  find  out  the  writer,  but  stat  nominis  umbra  in  spite  of  all 
my  efforts  to  uncover  him.  I  do  not  even  suspect  who  he  may 
be." 


RECOLLECTIONS  AS  A  SOURCE   OF   HISTORY.       397 

It  is  not  difficult  to  explain  all  this.  The  "  romancer," 
as  Mr.  Barney  calls  him,  knew  from  the  public  journals 
that  there  was  a  breakfast  at  Mr.  GrmneH's ;  he  imagined 
that  Mr.  Barney,  as  a  friend  of  Lincoln  and  Chase,  was 
likely  to  have  been  one  of  the  guests;  he  supposed,  in 
1879,  that  Mr.  Barney,  who  had  passed  out  of  sight,  was 
no  longer  living  to  dispute  his  statement,  and  that  it  was 
therefore  safe  to  put  into  his  mouth  any  words  he  pleased. 
As  the  facts  now  appear,  the  "  Diary  of  a  Public  Man  " 
must  be  regarded  as  a  fiction,  —  nothing  more  nor  less. 

The  reading  of  Mr.  Pierce's  paper  was  followed  by  an  informal 
discussion,  in  which  Messrs.  George  S.  Hale,  Justin  Winsor, 
William  Everett,  Barrett  Wendell,  William  W.  Goodwin,  Samuel 
A.  Green,  Samuel  F.  McCleary,  and  Albert  B.  Hart  took  part. 
After  the  paper  was  printed,  its  critical  method  was  approved  in 
letters  to  the  author  from  several  historical  students,  —  among  them 
Andrew  D.  White,  Horace  White,  Henry  L.  Dawes,  James  O. 
Murray,  and  James  B.  Angell,  —  some  of  whom  gave  other  in- 
stances of  errors  in  recollections  which  had  come  within  their 
knowledge. 


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